Liset & Daniel Stanton

Liset Stanton understands first-hand what nearly 1,000 Canadians searching for a stem cell match are going through. She knows that each of these patients, regardless of their age, is somebody’s child. Liset’s own journey began eight years ago when her son Daniel, just six-years-old at the time, was diagnosed with leukemia. His first round of chemotherapy wasn’t successful, so a transplant was determined to be the best, and perhaps only, option for the little Grade 1 student.

When no matches were found within their family, the Stanton’s had to turn to the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network at Canadian Blood Services. It would be up to a stranger to save Daniel’s life. The search began in March 2005 and word came in May of that year that a match had been found.

It was a few months later in July when Daniel received the transplant in Toronto and thankfully for the little boy who’d already been through so much, things went well. To this day she is still in awe of the power packed into such a small pouch of cord blood, donated by a mother she’ll probably never meet.

Liset knows other mothers are still waiting for the call – and it’s because of them that she signed on to be the volunteer co-chair of the Ottawa fundraising committee as part of the Campaign For All Canadians. She wants to help build the national public cord blood bank to save other mothers and children from having to wait for a match that, in far too many cases, might never be found.