Above the bend in the Fraser

Connaught Heights is the western shoulder of New Westminster, on the high ground above the bend of the Fraser's North Arm. The city's published historical context statement records that the Royal Engineers surveyed the ground in 1859 as District Lot 172, and then almost nothing happened for half a century. The first house went up in 1910. Sixty-three more followed through the 1930s, mostly small bungalows on gravel streets with grass boulevards. Administration passed from the province to New Westminster in 1938, the area was named the Connaught Heights Regulated Area in 1948, and it was not annexed to the city until 1965. The SkyTrain station at its southern edge on 22nd Street opened in 1985.

It is a plain neighbourhood with a long wait in its history, and Day 22 crosses it on ordinary residential grades. The reason for the walk is plainer still. Jada Bascom was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at one month old and received her transplant at seven months old. No one in her family was a compatible donor.

The person who matched her was Torsten Huber, in Germany. Unrelated matches like that are found through registries, and registries are searched across borders: the World Marrow Donor Association's Search and Match Service manages an inventory of over 42 million donors available for transplantation.

In British Columbia the registry is Canadian Blood Services', which operates Canada's national stem cell registry. It takes people between 17 and 35 who are in good general health and willing to be a donor to any patient in need. You answer the questions online, a cheek swab kit reaches you in the mail within one to three weeks, you swab and send it back, and the sample is HLA typed before your tissue type is added to the registry. The foundation does none of that. It does not run a registry, type anyone, mail kits, or decide who is eligible. It points people to the registry for their country, and this stretch of the route is in British Columbia.