“Thanks to financial support from the Héma-Québec Foundation, the Association of Blood Donation Volunteers is able to recruit enough donors that Emrik can continue to receive treatment and live like a normal kid.”

– Caroline Potvin, Emrik’s mom

/ Plasma donor education and recruitment program

Emrik’s story

Emrik, an energetic, joyful eight-year-old boy has hypogammaglobulinemia. This disease leads to an immunodeficiency characterized by a very low antibody count. Every week since April 2014, both his thighs have been injected with immunoglobulin, a plasma-derived product. His treatments are done at home, and the process lasts 45 minutes to an hour. Very brave, Emrik is accustomed to receiving these injections and keeps busy playing video games while he gets his transfusion.

How does the Héma-Québec Foundation help Emrik?
«Support from the Héma-Québec Foundation helps find people able to donate plasma.»
– Caroline Potvin, Emrik’s mom

Thanks to these treatments, this courageous boy is able to live fully. He loves spending time outside, playing with his older sister Annabelle, biking, snowmobiling and even four-wheeling. He also loves hunting and fishing with his dad. Emrik is lucky to be able to enjoy himself during all these activities, without being constantly afraid that he will get sick. For Emrik, life without treatment would involve extreme fatigue, no energy to get through the day, a loss of appetite and health problems affecting many parts of his body, particularly his lungs and skin. His mother, Caroline Potvin, told us what happened when he went off his treatments for a six-month trial period.  

She remembers that her son couldn’t do the activities he’d planned and that he slept far more than usual. This indirectly affected their family life, as well as his school life. Thankfully, once he started up treatment again, Emrik was able to be just as active as the other kids, and get back to his normal life.

By providing funding to the Association of Blood Donation Volunteers, the Héma-Québec Foundation allows the ABDV to recruit enough plasma donors in Quebec to meet the needs of recipients like Emrik.

Emrik’s mother is extremely grateful for this progress, since it allows her son to live a completely normal life, with no limitations. The family is also grateful to the ABDV volunteers for the huge job they do, which makes blood drives possible.

Your donations allow Emrik to live life to the fullest!

/ Plasma donor education and recruitment program

Goal

1 250 000$

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