Waiting to say thank-you: Tears flow as bone marrow recipients meet donors for first time
When Mr Lim Wee Kiat was studying at Nanyang Technological University, he decided to impress a fellow student he had a crush on in an unusual way – by signing up as a bone marrow donor at a booth set up by the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP).
“She was telling me, ‘Hey, this is something that’s good, you should sign up’,” he recalled. “I just wanted to impress her, I didn’t even know what it was about.”
That impulsive decision resurfaced about five years later, in 2019, when Mr Lim was found to be a match for a young girl battling aplastic anaemia. The severe condition where the body fails to produce sufficient new blood cells is estimated to affect up to four in every one million people and can be fatal if left untreated.
The decision to donate his marrow was an easy one for Mr Lim, now 32, and in doing so he helped save the life of then four-year-old Ho Wen Qing.
He was speechless and in tears as he embraced Wen Qing when they met for the first time on Sept 21 at an event organised by the BMDP.