Calum & Lauchlin MacDonald - Atlantic Canada's Inspiring Family
On October 11th, 2023, Calum MacDonald and his family received the devastating news that Calum, at only 3 years of age, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML).
AML is a type of blood cancer that starts in stem cells of the blood. Acute leukemias, like AML, start suddenly, within days or weeks. Calum had no symptoms leading up to diagnosis and was brought to emergency due to a fever that had started 4 days earlier, with his parents, Kathleen and Allan, thinking it was likely an ear infection. When doctors found nothing in Calum’s ears, routine bloodwork was done out of an abundance of caution. Within an hour the family was advised of a suspected malignancy and admitted to hospital, which would begin what ended up being a 5 month long inpatient stay in hospital and 3 month long stay at Ronald McDonald House Toronto.
On October 27th, 2023, the family was told that Calum’s AML was much worse than they had hoped. Calum had a karyotype called Monosomy 7 which made his AML high risk and particularly resistant to chemotherapy. What this meant was that chemotherapy alone would be highly unlikely to cure Calum’s cancer. It was advised that the only way to cure Calum was through a bone marrow transplant. It was at this time that the family was made aware that paediatric bone marrow transplants aren’t performed east of Montreal and that they would have to relocate to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto for 3 months for Calum to receive lifesaving care.
Before going out to the world registry to locate a bone marrow match for Calum, the family was tested first. Having a familial match is typically preferred because it significantly reduces the risk of Graft vs Host Disease post bone marrow transplant. Kathleen and Allan were only 50% matches, but on November 23, 2023, the family was notified that somehow, with a likelihood of less than 25%, that Calum’s older brother Lauchlin was a 100% match, and was the ideal candidate to be Calum’s bone marrow donor.
As you can imagine, being a bone marrow donor at the tender age of 8 years old is a lot to take on mentally and physically, and as parents, it was also incredibly difficult to ask of Lauchlin, knowing of the mental health implications if things went poorly for Calum post-transplant. Despite it all, Lauchlin was so happy to be able to help Calum in any way he could and faced his bone marrow harvest with great bravery and determination.
Calum received his transplant on February 13th, 2024. His transplant went very well with no major side effects to date. Calum is tested monthly to ensure his cancer isn’t returning and that testing will continue for the foreseeable future as Calum’s cancer relapse rate is quite high.
Calum and Lauchlin have at such young ages, been through a lot, both mentally and physically. Our hope is that through sharing Calum and Lauchlin’s story we can increase awareness and shine a light on the need for more research and funding for not only blood cancers and paediatric cancer research, but also mental health and advocacy supports for young donors.