Zara Al Shaikh may look like your typical rebellious 13-year-old with her wild blue hair, but she’s way tougher than appearances let on.
When Zara was just 11 years old, she was originally diagnosed with leukemia. Within a year, her cancer had gone into remission, but now, the 13-year-old from Hampshire, United Kingdom got the news from her doctors that her cancer had returned. In order to survive, Zara needs to find a bone marrow donor. However, her father, Dr. Loua Al Shaikh, explained that finding a match was going to be difficult as his daughter has mixed Arabic and English ancestry.
In order to survive, Zara needs to find a bone marrow donor. However, her father, Dr. Loua Al Shaikh, explained that finding a match was going to be difficult as his daughter has mixed Arabic and English ancestry.
“It’s just a few days ago when Zara and I were sitting in hospital and we looked at these social media things online,” Al Shaikh told ABC News, which is when he and his daughter came up with the idea to “post something out there and someone might grab it.” Zara then started Twitter and Facebook accounts and a website from her hospital bed to encourage people to register as stem cell or bone marrow donors.
While Zara has still not found a match, the original post to Twitter saying “I urgently need a bone marrow transplant. I have a very rare tissue type due to mixed ethnicity (Arabic/British). Pls help me find a match” has been shared more than 12,000 times and her hashtag #Match4Zara has gone viral.
Since Zara’s tweet went viral, an official from one bone marrow registry reported that there had been a “twelve fold” increase in people signing up in just one day. “People are answering the call, so social media is doing its thing,” he told ABC News. “These are regular folk and it makes you believe in humanity.”
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[Featured image credit: match4zara]