Mother desperate as baby battles leukaemia

Currently hospitalised at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, four-year-old Dahnelia Davis is putting up a fierce battle against acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Chemotherapy treatments have unfortunately failed, and the youngster is urgently in need of a bone marrow transplant (BMT). However, her mother Maleka Clarke is unable to find the required US$40,000 (approximately $6.1 million) for her only child to undergo surgery at a hospital in India.

"I am reaching out to anyone who is willing to assist. My daughter is a very brave little girl and she has her entire life ahead of her. She has never gone to school since her diagnosis, as she spends most of the time in hospital. She is prone to infection so she can hardly play the way she would want, but she is a fighter. I want to see her grow up to the point where I can attend her graduations and wedding. I want her to have a good chance at life so I am really asking for some help," Clarke said.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is caused by a DNA mutation in the stem cells, causing too many white blood cells to be produced. The white blood cells are also released from the bone marrow before they are mature and able to fight infection the way fully developed white blood cells do.

Clarke said her daughter was living a healthy life, therefore, in 2021, when she fell while playing in their Yallahs, St Thomas home, she brushed it off as nothing. A day later, Dahnellia began complaining about pain in her hips and was taken to hospital for assessment. The chilling diagnosis was something she was unprepared for.

"We took her to Bustamante Hospital and they ran some tests and then we found out she had cancer. It was unbelievable and heart-wrenching. It is still unbelievable now because although she is in a lot of pain, she is still very full of life. Furthermore, there isn't a history of this disease in our family," she said.

"The first and second treatment of chemo was okay. She has to do lumbar puncture twice monthly just to ensure the cancer isn't spreading. The last round of chemo that she is supposed to get now is not working and it is affecting her kidneys, so they lower the dosage. Chemo is just not working now, so she needs a bone marrow transplant," Clarke added.

A BMT is a special therapy for patients with certain cancers or other diseases. It involves taking cells that are normally found in the bone marrow (stem cells), filtering those cells, and giving them back either to the donor (patient) or to another person. The goal of BMT is to transfuse healthy bone marrow cells into a person after his or her own unhealthy bone marrow has been treated to kill the abnormal cells.

A GoFundMe account created in February has raised US$1803 of the required goal.

Persons wishing to assist Dahnelia Davis may contact her mother Maleka Clarke at 876 774-2501 or donate to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-dahnelia-beat-acute-lymphoblastic-leukemia