In 2008, Toon Boom Animation began a campaign to save the man behind the voice of the Toon Boom Animation tutorials, Emru Townsend. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia in December 2007, and in early 2008, he discovered he needed a bone marrow transplant. His only sibling was not a match, and he quickly learned about the unrelated registries of donors worldwide, and the lack of visibility of accurate information about registration as a donor and the donation process if someone proves to be a match.
Emru treated his search for an unrelated donor in a similar manner to how he met new friends and colleagues in the animation world. He reached out to other people, and was always glad to lend a hand, without worrying what he might get in return.
Emru found a potential match in June, and in September, the donor was still committed to providing a donation. Emru received a transfusion of the donor's stem cells the day before the Ottawa International Animation Festival, fittingly, at the Ottawa Hospital 10 minutes away. For this reason only, he missed his first Ottawa festival in 20 years.
Despite his transplant successfully engrafting to his body, his cancer proved to be too resistant to chemotherapy and stem cell therapy, and he died peacefully on November 11, 2008 in the presence of his family.
In addition to Toon Boom, he freelanced as a writer for Softimage and Autodesk. He founded Frames Per Second magazine in 1991, which later became a website in 2003 that still runs today. He was a contributor to APAToons, the long-running amateur press association devoted to animation, with the likes of Jerry Beck, Harry McCracken, Mark Mayerson, and Bob Miller. He was co-chair of the 2008 SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival, until he had to step down from the role due to his illness. Emru was a vital part of the Montreal and international animation community, in person and online.
Pictures of Emru: Courtesy of Vicky Vriniotis
He has asked that people learn more about becoming registered donors, and sign up if they can. Toon Boom Animation is committed to helping get Emru's message across, even though his voice is now silent.
Here are some common facts about stem cell registration and donation that are often unknown or misunderstood.
70% of people requiring a stem cell transplant need an unrelated donor. The first choice is a family member, but more people will have to rely on a stranger.
Register by providing a blood sample in Quebec or the UK, or a cheek swab sample in the rest of Canada or the US. In the US, UK and most of Canada, you can even fill in your registration online and get a kit sent to your home. This is a free service in Canada and the UK as well as many other countries. In the US, there are ways to register for free.
Resources: OneMatch (Canada): www.onematch.ca National Marrow Donor Program (US): www.marrow.org Anthony Nolan Trust (UK): www.anthonynolan.org.uk Other registries: www.healemru.com
Donation is safe, fast, and not risky.
You never donate stem cells or bone marrow at risk to your own life.
Whatever is donated replenishes itself naturally in the body. There is a myth of extreme pain, which is one of the major reasons people do not donate. In fact, the donor may feel achy and sore, and possible flu-like symptoms before or shortly after donation, depending on the process used.
There are 2 ways to do it.
70% of people will donate in a process that takes a few hours and is similar to donating blood. For a few days leading up to the extraction process, the donor receives injections to produce additional stem cells in the body.
30% of people will donate by having liquid marrow extracted from within the back of the pelvic bone. The donor will be under general anesthetic or an analgesic will be applied in the area of extraction.
Many people cannot find matches.
There are 8 blood types, but for a stem cell match there are several million combinations of possible human leukocyte antigen (HLA) profiles - 150 billion different possibilities in theory.
Blood type does not affect a matching. When a donor has a different blood type, if the transplant works, the recipient's blood type will change! Even though blood is important, and people who need transplants (in addition to many other people) need donated blood to survive, people with a rare blood type can probably find a match in a room with 100 people of different ethnicity. For someone looking for a stem cell match, they may need a stadium of 20000 or 50 stadiums (or more) to find a match.
Then they have to hope that person is on the registry.
The most likely match within the general population is someone of the same or similar ethnicity. Many donor pools are severely underrepresented, including donors of African, Aboriginal, Asian and Latino descent. It is vital for these numbers to increase to help more people find matches.
So far due to the efforts of many people who have continued to support this awareness campaign by spreading the word and getting registered, two matches other than Emru's have occurred.
To learn more, go to www.heal-emru.com. Questions can be directed to info@healemru.com.