Seeking an angel

POLSON — Group. Tribe. Clan. Family. Community.

Whatever you call it, when times get tough, people turn to those close to them.  When a Polson woman’s immediate family couldn’t help her, the neighborhood stepped forward.  In a poignant display of a community’s compassion, over 40 people signed up as potential bone marrow donors last Thursday at the Tribal Health building in Polson.

In June of this year, doctors diagnosed Chrissy Ducharme with leukemia.  Ducharme, a single mother of four girls, said the news hit her hard.

“When I found out, I thought my world stopped,” she said.

Her mother Toni Ducharme said the past three months have been extremely rough for the family. Chrissy, a 35-year-old Polson resident, has been through two rounds of chemotherapy since June.  She is living with her parents when she is not in Missoula for treatment.  Her sister, Leann Cutfinger, has taken charge by helping care for the girls and planning multiple fundraisers on Chrissy’s behalf.  Her family has seen Chrissy through her illness, but there is one thing they can’t help her with.

Chrissy is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Hoping to help, Cutfinger volunteered to be her donor.

But Cutfinger wasn’t a match.

In fact, only 30 percent of patients find a sibling match, Magda Silva said.  Silva works for Be The Match, a donor registry operated by the National Marrow Donor Program. Be The Match is where the other 70 percent must rely on finding a donor. Silva said even if people who signed up Thursday are not a match for Chrissy, they are a prospective match for one of the thousands of patients waiting for a donor.

“We’re all doing our part to find everybody a match,” Silva said.

According to the Be The Match website, tissue types are inherited. This means patients are most likely to match the tissue type of someone who shares their racial or ethnic heritage. Currently, only one percent of the registry comprises donors who identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native.  The chances of an American Indian or Alaskan Native finding a donor within the registry is 82 percent, high considering the only 115,000 adult donors on the list.

For this reason, Margene Asay said it was important for Tribal Health and Human Services (THHS) to hold a bone marrow drive for Chrissy.

When Asay, a THHS Health Educator, found out Chrissy Ducharme, an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, needs a bone marrow transplant, she immediately agreed to help.  

Asay planned the bone marrow drive to recruit donors in hopes of finding a match for Chrissy.  Even though Asay didn’t know Chrissy personally, once she met her it was as if Chrissy had always been kin.

 “We, as Indian people, are so good at pulling together as one big family,” she said.

Asay hoped the drive would bring in at least 20 new donors, little did she know her team of volunteers would add 44 names to the National Bone Marrow Registry. 

Years ago, Asay planned a bone marrow drive that resulted in a positive match.  She said she hopes they can repeat the success of the first drive.

Volunteer Jeana Moore, who accompanied Silva on behalf of Be The Match, can attest to the success of bone marrow transplants.  Her granddaughter, Jada Bascom, received a bone marrow transplant in 2007 when she was seven months old. Bascom is now off all medication and attending grade school.

But finding a donor wasn’t easy. Out of the 7 million donors in the United States, none were a match for Bascom. Providence shown down on the little girl when the search was broadened to include donors in Europe. A young man from Southern Germany, Torsten Huber, was Jada’s genetic counterpart.

Moore was so moved by the experience she made it her life’s work to add donors to the list but in an unconventional way. Moore walks across the country talking to people and encouraging them to become bone marrow donors.  Since it’s founding, the Jada Bascom Foundation has enrolled 13,000 new donors.  Moore said 22 people have contacted her because they were a match after Moore convinced them to sign up.

“It gives your life value,” Moore said, adding recipient’s families can never have enough words to thank donors.

Moore said she was overwhelmingly happy to see the compassion of the Polson community and how many people were anxious to help Chrissy.

“She has a very strong support system here,” Moore said.

When the fortieth person walked through the door last Thursday, a smile spread across Chrissy’s face.  

“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “I didn’t expect that many people.”

While donors signed up, others perused the baked goods and art being raffled for Chrissy. Cutfinger said she is already planning more fundraisers such as an Indian taco feed to help offset costs.  Chrissy will continue treatment in Missoula until a donor can be found. She wanted to thank everyone for showing up, and for their kind thoughts and prayers.