Brave Alicia (13) from Poing: Back in life after blood cancer

Created: 02/19/2022, 02:00 p.m

By: Armin Rösl

Alicia (front) took this photo with her family while on vacation a few weeks before the diagnosis.

© Private

13-year-old Alicia from Poing has overcome blood cancer - thanks to a stem cell donation.

The student is back home.

Alicia's mother calls for typing.

Poing - The doctors explained it to Alicia like this, her mother says: "Someone comes into your house and says, this is my house now." The house owner (Alicia's blood cells) and the new guest (the foreign stem cells), who hopefully will never leave again, fighting each other at first.

That's how it has been for the past few months, Alicia's body has been struggling just like the girl herself. Alicia will be 14 years old on August 7th, on March 25th she will be with her parents Michele (44) and André (46) and their eleven-year-old sister Leticia also celebrate her birthday - on that day a year ago, the girl received a stem cell transplant.

"249 milliliters of blood that saved my daughter's life," says Michele Gomes in the living room of her home in Poing.

That bag of 8 ounces of blood saved Alicia's life.

Recorded during stem cell transplant.

© Private

Chemotherapy and over 30 medications, many side effects and pain shaped the time before and after the transfusion.

Today, a year later, Alicia only needs a few medications, on February 26th she will receive the last dose of immunosuppressants.

These substances reduce the immune system so that it does not reject the foreign cells.

As a result, the 13-year-old is in isolation at home to avoid catching an infection.

For the time after the last dose, Michele Gomes says: "Then it only goes uphill."

(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.)

Flashback: Just before Christmas 2020, Alicia came back from a little walk with the dog and felt completely exhausted and tired, says the mother.

The tiredness didn't go away.

"My maternal instinct told me that something was wrong." After visiting the doctor, Alicia came to the Schwabing Children's Hospital on January 7, 2021.

Diagnosis: Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare form of blood cancer which, according to the Internet information portal kinderkrebsinfo.de, is diagnosed in around 30 children and adolescents in Germany every year.

Alicia was in dire need of a stem cell donation to have a chance of healing.

Poing: It's like a miracle for the family

It was like a miracle for the parents Michele and André Gomes when they received the news just a few weeks later that there would be a stem cell donor with the right tissue characteristics (a so-called “genetic twin”).

The transplant was scheduled for March 25, 2021.

Up to the last second, they hoped and prayed that it would happen, says Michele Gomes, because: "A donor can back out until the end." He (or she, the family doesn't know who the donor is is) not done.

Please register in the German bone marrow donor file, it's that easy and you save lives!

Michele Gomes, mother of Alicia

"A lot of people think that the day you get the stem cells, everything will be fine," says Gomes.

"No, it's a very long time and a rocky road." Her daughter walked it with the support of her family and continues to return to normal life.

The cells have now grown, Alicia's body has taken over the donor's blood group, from blood group 0 to A. "She's healed," says the mother.

Everyday life at home consists of physiotherapy and other therapies, and the 13-year-old also receives online lessons from the Franz-Marc-Gymnasium Markt Schwaben, where she is in the 7th grade.

The ability to concentrate has improved over the past few weeks, says the mother.

And: "Alicia has made it a point to read two books a month."

Poing: Mother offers help to those affected

Michele Gomes and her husband André can hardly express their gratitude that their daughter has beaten blood cancer through the stem cell donation.

"I want to call out to everyone as loud as I can: Please register in the German bone marrow donor file, it's that simple and you save lives!" Because it was good for her in the difficult time to have contact with other parents and their children are or were also affected by leukemia, she would like to say one more sentence: "If other parents are in the situation, they are welcome to contact me.

I want to try to help.”

Anyone wishing to be registered in the German Bone Marrow Donor File and typed for this purpose can obtain all the information at www.dkms.de.

More current news from the district of Ebersberg can be found here.