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We received a heartfelt message from a blood cancer patient last week. It read simply, “You are the answer to my prayer.”
The message was sent to us by Katie. She is a single mom, diagnosed with leukemia whose only cure is a bone marrow transplant.
For 29 years, we have supported patients who require a bone marrow transplant. We are very familiar with the challenges and barriers to receiving a life–saving transplant. It usually begins with the search for a matching donor.
Katie already had a matching donor, and she was ready for her transplant. But the transplant team would not schedule her until she could make arrangements for a Caregiver.
A Caregiver was required to assist her for an extended period after the transplant.
Katie’s insurance, like most, did not cover the expense of a Caregiver.
This was Katie’s barrier.
She has been unable to work since her diagnosis and she required a little support. Fortunately, the Icla da Silva Foundation provided Katie with the financial support she needed to arrange for a Caregiver.
Katie is scheduled to receive her transplant.
The Icla da Silva Foundation helps patients in need of a bone marrow transplant by removing barriers. We do this by providing emotional, logistical, and critical financial support. Our goal is to ensure that more patients will receive their transplants.
For patients demonstrating financial need, we help with expenses that usually aren’t covered by insurance and often prohibit treatment. These include transportation, temporary housing, and caregiver expenses while in treatment.
You can help us save more lives! Consider making a financial donation to support our mission. Together we will help more patients and save more lives.
If you are a patient waiting for a bone marrow transplant, and in need of support, please submit a request
Thanks for reading.
Written by: Bret Itskowitch
Do You Remember Mya?Thanks to supporters like you, we were able to help Mya and her family during a very difficult time.
Eight-year-old Ne’Mya spent so much time in the hospital during treatment for T-cell leukemia that her mother Nekisha couldn’t work. Nekisha had to be with her daughter. She had to be there for blood transfusions, chemotherapy, and spinal treatments.
Of course, this led to financial challenges. Paying the utilities was difficult. Just filling up the car with gas was a struggle.
The Icla da Silva Foundation was able to support Mya and her family both emotionally and financially.
We were able to do this because of you.
Thank you for your support. Thank you for helping us provide a small grant so Mya’s family could focus on her treatment.
Please consider helping us support more patients like Mya.
Help us save more lives.
We Are Grateful for Anjana Persuad, a High School Junior from Queens, NY“There is no substitute for hard work”
– Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and 3rd President of the United States
“There is no replacement for passionate youth”
– Airam da Silva, President, Icla da Silva Foundation
When Anjana Persaud first learned about Be The Match, she became passionately committed to volunteering with us to help us save more lives.
Research, Advocacy, Community Outreach
A junior at Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School in Queens, New York, Anjana won first place at the New York State HOSA Spring Leadership Conference for Human Growth and Development.
Her research investigated using social media to address racial disparities on bone marrow registries.
She will be competing in June with her research at HOSA’s International Leadership Conference!
Fundraising
Anjana is also a member of the HOSA team at Thomas A. Edison C.T.E. High School that raised more than $3,000 as part of the HOSA national service project!
Commitment
Anjana recently shared her passion about the Be The Match disparity with her mentor at Apex for the Youth, Vicky Yang. Together they will work to increase awareness about blood cancers and the National Marrow Donor Program to the Asian American community in New York City.
Dedication
Anjana will also be participating in the New York Summer Youth Employment Program group with Dr. Savitzky from her High School Thomas A. Edison C.T.E. We hope they consider working with us to further extend awareness about the importance of saving lives by including more diversity on the national Be the Match registry.
Passion
Finally, Anjana has launched her own campaign on Instagram (@swab4ny). She continues to raise awareness about the importance of signing up to become a potential stem cell donor!
Thank you, Anjana, for everything you have done!
We know that we haven’t heard the last of you.
If you would like to volunteer with us, help raise awareness, and save more lives, please click the link below.
Written by Andres Lopez
Join Us for the Icla da Silva 2019 Hope Gala
BREAKING NEWS: On October 16th, 2019, the Icla da Silva Foundation will hold its 27th annual Hope Gala celebration. The event promises to be an extraordinary evening of dining and dancing while raising funds to support our mission.
Held annually, the Hope Gala celebrates the Foundation’s achievements for the year in fighting leukemia and other diseases treatable by bone marrow transplants. The evening’s highlight is an emotional first-time meeting between a former patient and their life-saving bone marrow donor.
Details
- Wednesday, October 16th
- Guastavino’s, 409 East 59th Street, New York, NY
- 6:30 PM Cocktails and Silent Auction
- 7:30 PM Dinner and Dance
- Black Tie Optional
Please join us, rsvp here:
Honoring
This year, the Hope Gala is honoring Dr. Lawrence Itskowitch. As a founding board member, Dr. Itskowitch has been with the Foundation since day one. He will share some of his experiences working with the foundation at its onset, and meeting Icla prior to her death from leukemia in 1992.
Grateful
The Icla da Silva Foundation is extremely grateful to the Hope Gala Host Committee and Co-Chairs, Mrs. Tanae & Mr. Claudio Braz Ferro, and Mrs. Renata & Mr. Claudio Garcia.
Their gracious support enables us to move forward in our mission of both saving lives by recruiting bone marrow donors and providing support services to children and adults with leukemia and other diseases treatable by marrow transplants.
Join Us
We hope to see you on October 16th. RSVP today! Together we will save more lives.
About Icla da Silva
The Icla da Silva Foundation is the largest recruitment center for the Be The Match Registry in the United States. The Foundation recruits over 38,000 potential bone marrow donors every year, with a strong focus on minority communities.
The Icla da Silva Foundation was established in 1992, in memory of the 13-year-old Brazilian girl named Icla da Silva. After two years of fighting leukemia, Icla passed away in New York City, where she came hoping to get her life-saving treatment: a bone marrow transplant. The young girl never found a matching donor.
The mission of the Icla da Silva Foundation is to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors and to provide support services to children and adults with leukemia and other diseases treatable by marrow transplants. The Icla da Silva Foundation is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c) 3 of the IRS Code.
www.icla.org
Your donations will help us add more potential life-savers to the Be The Match registry this year.
Even if you were unable to make a financial donation, we wanted to thank you for your continued support.
Every dollar, like, share and mention brings us closer to our goal of saving more lives that are treatable with bone marrow transplants.
You are appreciated.
Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.
Wishing you and your family a healthy and happy New Year!
A Season For Giving – Part 4 – A 2nd Chance At Life
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Help us greet the new year with a 2nd chance at life!
With your financial contribution, you are supporting us in fulfilling our mission to save more lives…to give more patients that 2nd chance at life. Funds that we raise help us recruit potential bone marrow donors and add them to the Be The Match donor registry.
Please consider making a tax deductible donation to the Icla da Silva Foundation and help us host more drives, recruit more donors, and aid more families in need.
Specifically, we need to add more potential life savers who are ethnically diverse. All minority segments are under represented and those patients are much less likely to find a matching donor.
With your help we can change this unfortunate fact.
We need to recruit more people like Michael Powell, who registered through Icla da Silva in 2007. He received the call that he was a match, not once, but twice. He generously donated his stem cells in 2013, and then he gave his life saving bone marrow in 2017.
His bone marrow was successfully transplanted into Aunesti Sullivan, and she began her 2nd chance at life on June 2, 2017 at the age of 12. She is doing great and living the active life of a young teenager – thanks to Michael.
Please help us recruit more people like Michael and add more hope for the 14,000 patients who are in need each year. Even a small financial donation will help us give more patients like Aunesti a 2nd chance at life.
If you missed part 1, part 2, or part 3 of this 4 part series, you can read them by clicking the links.
Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.
Thank you for your support!
A Season For Giving – Part 3 – Keeping Hope AliveKEEPING HOPE ALIVE!
This Holiday season we are sharing four inspiring stories from our patients and friends. We hope that these stories move you and incite you to make a donation.
With donations from people like you, Icla da Silva is able to manage a small patient support program. The program provides aid to patients in need.
Our goal is to Keep the Hope Alive for as many patients as possible. Whether they are searching for a match, or working through treatment, we do our best to provide emotional, logistical, and as often as we can, financial support.
Our budget is small, but we are always available with a supportive ear and a kind word. We help with logistics by making referrals regarding transplant centers, and recommendations for second opinions and clinical trials. When we can afford it, we try to assist financially with HLA typing and sometimes, transportation, lodging or meals. This year, we were able to help more than 200 families. Whether that was 2 nights at a Holiday Inn, or a gas card to get to a treatment center, we support the patients we work with as best we can.
We would love to be able to help more patients, but we can’t do it without you. Please consider a donation and help us Keep Hope Alive.
You may remember Ne’Mya Sullivan from last year.
Mya was blessed to receive a life-saving stem cell transplant from her brother. With so many weeks in the hospital, both before and after her transplant, Mya’s mom was forced to quit work; despite their growing list of bills and expenses. Thanks to people like you, we were fortunate enough to be able to assist the family with a small grant. We are grateful that we were able to Keep the Hope Alive because of donations from our supporters.
“Thank you to amazing people who supported us through our journey and continue to check in. We love you all…thank you most to the Icla da Silva Foundation. You are all so amazing; more than supporters, more like family. Thank you for everything.” -Nekisha Banks Sullivan
One year post transplant and Ne’Mya is doing great. She is in the 5th grade and has joined the cheerleading team. She is grateful for a daily routine without meds, and the opportunity to enjoy her family without restriction. Go Mya!
A single donation can make such a profound impact on a patient’s family. Will you help us continue to Keep Hope Alive? We want every family to get the support that they need in the New Year.
Help us help them.
If you missed part 1, or part 2 of our 4 part series, you can read them by clicking the links.
Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.
Thank you.
A Season For Giving – Part 2 – The Gift of HopeSEASONS GREETINGS!
This Holiday season we are sharing four inspiring stories from our patients and friends. We hope that these stories move you and incite you to make a donation.
All throughout the year, the Icla da Silva Foundation strives to give more patients and their families the Gift of Hope.
During the Holiday Season, the Season for Giving, we ask for your help. The funds that are donated go towards adding more potential life savers to the Be The Match bone marrow registry.
Too many patients are searching for a matching stem cell or bone marrow donor without success.
Veronica Depauli is one of those patients. Veronica is searching for her match.
She has a very rare disease called ADO II. It is a genetic disorder which causes increased bone density and abnormal bone growth. Without a matching donor, her condition can lead to facial paralysis, blindness and death. Veronica’s family has been searching for a bone marrow match for over two years, and we have been supporting them in their search.
Although her condition gets more complex with each day, Veronica continues to smile. Despite the many doctor visits, the tests, the pain…she smiles.
We are asking for your help. There is currently no match for Veronica on the registry.
Through financial support from people like you, we are able to host more drives and give more HOPE to the many patients in need of a match.
We want to save more lives. Over the past 7 years, we have helped more than 500 patients find their match. Your donation will help us add more potential life-savers to the registry. We are hopeful that one of them will be a match for Veronica.
Please consider a donation and help us continue to give the Gift of Hope.
If you missed part 1 of our 4 part series, you can read it here.
Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.
Thank you.
A Season For Giving – Part 1 – The Gift of LifeSEASONS GREETINGS!
This Holiday season we are sharing four inspiring stories from our patients and friends. We hope that these stories move you and incite you to make a donation.
The Season represents a time for giving. For us, it’s about Giving the Gift of Life. We use the funds that we receive to add more potential donors to the Be the Match registry. We are hoping to find that perfect match, a Gift of Life for one of the many patients that we work with.
One of those patients is Asaya Bullock.
When Asaya was just 8 months old, he was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called IPEX syndrome. A person with IPEX lacks the ability to regulate their immune system, they loose the capability to defend against disease. It can also cause the immune system to attack the body’s own tissues and organs.
Asaya often feels pain throughout his entire body. Although he is allowed to attend school, he misses many days due to treatments, or simply because he doesn’t feel up to it. Asaya and his family have been searching for a bone marrow donor for most of his life.
Asaya is African American and West Indian Caribbean. Unfortunately, his ethnicity is not well represented on the bone marrow registry. Only 23% of African American patients with a blood cancer are successful in finding a matching stem cell or bone marrow donor. By comparison, Caucasian patients with the same diagnoses, have a 77% chance of finding a matching donor.
There simply aren’t enough potential donors who have joined the registry. The Icla da Silva Foundation is trying to change this by adding more people to the registry who are ethnically diverse.
In the last 7 years, the time Asaya has been fighting his disease, we have added more than 200,000 potential donors to the registry. Unfortunately, there is still no match for Asaya.
We will continue until we find one.
By donating just $100 you can help defer the cost of adding one person to the bone marrow registry. With your help, we will find a life-saving donor for Asaya and many other patients like him Please donate and help us Give the Gift of Life to children like Asaya.
You can read part 2 of our 4 part series here.
Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.
Thank you.
#Giving Tuesday – Every Contribution Gives Hope
The Icla Da Silva Foundation has been helping patients with blood cancers, and adding potential donors to the bone marrow registry, for 26 years. We started in memory of my sister Icla, who was unable to find the match that she needed to survive.
In her honor, every year the Icla Da Silva Foundation adds 38,000 new members to the registry. Potential life savers, with a strong focus on communities from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
When a family learns that a loved one has been diagnosed with a rare disease or blood cancer, and is in need of a bone marrow transplant, the fear can be horribly daunting. Our goal is to offer these patients and their families hope for a second chance, hope for a life-saving stem cell or bone marrow match.
One of our patients, Julian Morales, has been searching for his match since he was three years old. Now seven, Julian smiles when he speaks about the day he will finally be able to go to a water park with his family, or play outside with his sister, or simply enjoy a single nights rest without pain or discomfort.
Julian was born with a rare genetic disorder, Dyskeratosis Congenita (DKC). His bone marrow does not produce enough blood cells, and his immune system is severely compromised. The team at Icla has been working to find a bone marrow match for Julian by hosting drives in diverse communities.
Patients with Hispanic or Latino heritage only have a 46% percent chance of finding a matching donor on the registry. Those with mixed ethnicities have an even lower probability of finding their match. Julian is of Honduran and Guatemalan descent, and his need for a life saving match grows with every day. With the support of people like you, we continue the search for his match.
There are many deserving and inspiring Foundations to support on this #Giving Tuesday. This year we hope you think of the Icla da Silva Foundation, of Julian Morales, and of the thousands of children in need of their perfect match. Contributions like yours give hope to the patients, their families, and the many friends in their community.
Thank you for your generosity.
Thank you for being a part of our family.
Airam Da Silva
