Greek-Canadian Mother of Three In Need of a Stem Cell Transplant

Cathy Anagnostopoulos is a 44 year-old mother of 3 young children; Gregory, Angela and Alexander, aged 10, 11 and 15. She lives in Toronto, Canada. Her recent diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) has brought complete devastation to their lives. The only cure for Cathy’s type of cancer is a successful Stem Cell Transplant. Her siblings have been tested but unfortunately, they are not a match. Her ONLY hope now to live is to find an unrelated donor. Cathy is of Greek descent which makes a match more likely within the Greek Community, however all ethnicities are encouraged to help.

The situation: Cathy Anagnostopoulos was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. A Pharmacist by trade, Cathy has a family with 3 young children – Alex, Angela and Gregory.

After she had experienced headaches on and off for a few straight weeks, Nick, her husband of almost 20 years, took her to the emergency room at North York General Hospital. Preliminary blood work showed abnormalities in her blood cells.

Cathy was immediately transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital for further evaluation. It was there, on February 23, 2011, that she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), and learned that she would be spending the next month or so undergoing intense chemotherapy treatment.

This obvious came as complete shock to her and her family, as she was in otherwise perfect health. Staying true to her selfless personality, Cathy was more concerned for her children than her own well being. She used her family as inspiration to get her through the 5 weeks of chemo and recovery she spent at Princess Margaret Hospital.

On Tuesday, March 29, 2011, doctors determined that her blood cell counts were sufficient for Cathy to be discharged. At home 4 days later, Cathy felt short of breath and got rushed by ambulance to the emergency room at Sunnybrook. Unfortunately, blood tests revealed that the cancer had already returned.

Having failed her first round of induction chemotherapy, Cathy is once again at Princess Margaret Hospital and is scheduled to begin another, more aggressive round of treatment.

Doctors have determined that Cathy will require a stem cell transplant to have any chance at a full recovery.

To find out more information or to join your national Registry please visit: www.onematch.ca (Canada), http://www.bethematch.com (USA), http://www.sunflowerfund.org.za (South Africa) or abmdr.org.au (Australia)
Please consider joining the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Registry. If you are a match (with Cathy or another recipient), the actual transplant procedure, in most cases, is similar to donating blood.
For more information visit http://www.helpsavecathy.com and http://www.facebook.com/HelpSaveCathy

We don’t know how much time she has – so let’s not waste a second of it. This is an urgent matter of life or death and YOU may be the only match to save her life.