The search for the right lifesaver
Created: 06/14/2022, 16:40
By: Stefan Reich
Mouth open, cotton swab in: It's that easy to take tissue samples, which Manuela Ortmann and Verena Spitzer (r.) from the Bavarian Bone Marrow Donation Foundation (AKB) carried out in Herrsching.
© Dagmar Rutt
Regina Springer from Berg suffers from blood cancer and is looking for a suitable stem cell donor.
Friends want to help with the search with a registration campaign on June 25th.
The AKB also collects data from potential donors, most recently on Saturday in the Herrsching sailing club.
Aufkirchen/Herrsching – Many know Regina Springer in Berg.
She works as a student guide in the Farchach district, where she lives.
In Aufkirchen she chairs the parish council of the Catholic community and works as a cook in the kindergarten.
When the 42-year-old fell seriously ill in the spring, it quickly became known everywhere.
"And it was impressive to see how the environment reacted," says Andrea Schwenski.
She's been a friend since kindergarten days.
"Nobody looked away.
A pot of soup was brought in at noon or breakfast rolls in the morning.
Many just felt the need to give something back to Regina.”
In March, the life of the 42-year-old mother of two sons was turned upside down.
"From one day to the next, everything was different," says husband Rudi Springer.
His wife felt weak and complained of pain.
An examination revealed that she had blood cancer.
"On a Wednesday she was in the doctor's office, on Friday she came to the hospital, on Monday the chemotherapy started," says Rudi Springer.
Regina Springer suffers from acute lymphatic leukemia.
Defective progenitor cells of the white blood cells multiply and displace important structures for blood formation in the bone marrow.
Regina Springer has already survived the first round of chemotherapy, the second is just beginning
Regina Springer has already survived the first round of chemotherapy, and the second is just beginning.
"That also helps," says Rudi Springer.
But a complete cure with chemotherapy alone is not guaranteed.
And even with success, relapses are to be expected.
Another promising treatment is stem cell transplantation.
However, this requires a stem cell donor who is genetically very similar to the patient in certain characteristics.
One speaks of genetic twins.
Such should also be found for Regina Springer.
“Up to now, my wife has not been able to find it in the databases worldwide,” says Rudi Springer.
He is now also hoping for a registration campaign by the DKMS.
Regina Springer (right photo with husband Rudi) from Berg has blood cancer and hopes to find a suitable stem cell donor soon.
© private
The DKMS, formerly known as the German Bone Marrow Donor Database, maintains such a database.
A simple cheek swab is sufficient for registration.
Contrary to what the old name suggests, bone marrow does not usually have to be taken from donors today, but only cells from the blood.
If bone marrow is needed, an intervention in the iliac crest is sufficient.
Removals from the spinal cord – as is often mistakenly assumed – are no longer necessary.
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30 helpers were quickly found for the registration campaign
Andrea Schwenski set up the registration campaign with Bettina Völker and Andrea Leitner, two other friends.
“We quickly found more than 30 helpers to carry it out,” she says.
The parish of Aufkirchen, the municipality of Berg, MTV Berg, everyone immediately started spreading the call for registration.
"Being able to do something now creates an energy that carries us and Regina," says Schwenski.
The Bavaria Bone Marrow Donation Foundation (AKB) also maintains a database and organizes the registration of new potential donors, most recently last Saturday with the “Hart am Wind gegen Leukemia” campaign at the Herrschinger Segelclub (HSC).
The typing campaign called on sailing enthusiasts to register for the AKB database.
The regatta scheduled for the AKB campaign failed due to the summer doldrums.
But Martin Boschert, chairman of the Herrschinger Segelclub, did everything to push the typing forward.
He even recruited passers-by who happened to be strolling around the HSC grounds.
Deborah Prang from Riederau registered spontaneously.
"It can happen to anyone," said the slim blonde woman.
Deborah Prang's details will now remain registered until she is 60 years old.
AKB makes three donations a day in Gauting's outpatient clinic
Verena Spitzer from the AKB, which carried out the campaign in Herrsching, knows what it can feel like to find the genetic twin.
25 years ago she received a stem cell transplant as a young mother.
Spitzer owes her life to a donor from the USA, who she has visited again and again since then: "It's like family, she saved my life."
The AKB now has 350,000 registered donors and makes three donations a day in its Gauting outpatient clinic.
A total of seven million donors are registered in Germany.
"Nine out of ten patients in Germany find a suitable donor this way," says Annika Schirmacher, who oversees the registration campaign for Regina Springer at DKMS.
But for reasons of age alone, 80,000 people fall out of the databases in this country every year.
Every registration counts and also increases Regina Springer's chance of finding her genetic twin.
The registration campaign "Regina wants to live" will take place on Saturday, June 25, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Trachtenvereinsheim at Marienstraße 11 in Aufkirchen.
Anyone between the ages of 17 and 55 can register as a potential stem cell donor.
NILDA FRANGOS AND STEFAN REICH
