A few friends and I worked with Lara at UNESCAP Thailand at the end of 2014. I had visited Lara in London a few days before Match4lara campaign started off in early January. During our visit we found out about Lara's diagnosis and that Seb, her brother, was not a match, so we wanted to do something similar to the UK Match4lara campaign. Lara with UN Friends in Thailand. Read in our blog here We created a Facebook page "Match4lara_Italia" and contacted all the institutions

A few days ago a 25 year old student was told by Red Cross that he is a match to a 45 year old patient and needs to come in for further tests. He was so excited to be a donor but was worried that his Chinese grandmother would not agree since she was against it ever since he registered a few years ago. So the Red Cross prepped him on how to convince his grandmother that stem cell donation poses no danger to his health. He got home and carefully and slowly started to explain. H

Tale # 1 A group of 4 young 18 year old boys were so eager to register having been convinced by me that Leukemia patients would be saved by stem cells from someone young and healthy like them. After their medical check up, all but one was qualified to donate blood: the first had too much too drink the previous night, the second partied till late and didn’t go to bed until 2.00 am and the last one shyly said, " I’ve had herpes krup!” It was such a disappointment for me but the

At 3.45 pm on the first Saturday of our campaign, Jed walked into the Red Cross holding his backpack to his chest. He wanted to register as a stem cell donor for Lara. He told me that knew about the #match4lara through social media, that he lived in Chiangmai where it was not possible to register. So he took an 8 hours bus ride early that morning and arrived in the nick of time before the registry closed. Normally the registry closed at 3.30 pm but on that Saturday we asked

Auntie Lara, Be my valentine! Love you, Por Pla & Plamuk xoxo PS. FYI artwork lovingly created by Cousin #2, text by Cousin-in-law #2, in case you might mistake that 2 year old PP did it all herself!

The day before Lara fell ill, she phoned to interview me about Burmese workers who are working as domestics in Thailand. She was doing some research in order to help these workers from being exploited. Lara was admitted to the hospital a few days after that for leukaemia. I remembered that day very well because my heart was so devastated. My knees were shivering and I could barely hold back my tears from sadness for my niece. On the contrary, Lara bravely faced the bad n

เป็นระยะเวลากว่า 1 เดือนแล้วที่ทั่วโลกได้ช่วยกันรณรงค์โครงการ Match4lara เพื่อช่วยเหลือ ‘ลาร่า คาซาลอตติ’ (Lara Casalotti) นักศึกษาสาววัย 24 ปี ลูกครึ่งไทย-อิตาเลียน ที่ป่วยเป็นโรคลูคีเมียหรือมะเร็งในเม็ดเลือดขาวแบบเฉียบพลัน ในการค้นหาผู้บริจาคที่มีสเต็มเซลล์เข้ากับเธอเพื่อทำการรักษาด้วยการปลูกถ่ายสเต็มเซลล์อย่างเร่งด่วน ก่อนหน้านี้ ครอบครัวของเธอมีความหวังเพียงริบหรี่ที่จะหาผู้บริจาคที่มีสเต็มเซลล์เข้ากับลาร่าได้ แต่ในที่สุดก็ได้รับข่าวดีจากทีมแพทย์ที่รักษาลาร่าว่าหาคนที่มี

It's with such delight and relief that I can say that a match for Lara has been found! These past months have been such a whirlwind , but what has kept myself and my whole family so positive has been the amazing support we have received from every single person involved in the campaign. You have all been incredible: Everyone who has been so enthusiastic signing people up at a donor drives, everyone who has spent a day shivering but still smiling holding a collection bucket, e

A matching stem cell donor has been found for 24 year-old student Lara Casalotti, whose campaign to find a match inspired a worldwide surge of over 20,000 new donors in under a month. Lara, from North London, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in December during a trip to Thailand, and told her best hope of a cure was a stem cell transplant – but first she needed to find a donor. Due to Lara’s Thai-Italian heritage, she faced a “needle in a haystack” search - only thr

Since my diagnosis I have kept practising yoga and this has really helped me both physically and mentally. Something that my teacher and good friend Wolfie said has really resonated with me: to consider life as made up of a series of experiences; and that this diagnosis is just another experience. I have taken this thought to heart and it has helped me view things in a positive light. Everyone can learn from experiences, and since my diagnosis I have had many new ones and I’v