As per my request, Dr. Manuel set up an appointment for a stem cell transplant reassessment with Dr. Christina Fraga in Halifax. We met on Wednesday, August 6th, and despite a second global search of donor registries, no 10/10 match for me has been found. Only one 9/10 match has been located. He's now 38, and as Dr. Fraga explained, especially since MF can present unique challenges in terms of a successful transplant, a 10/10 match is the gold standard by which transplant teams operate. With only one match that is less than 10/10, proceeding with transplant preparation isn't recommended. Should the donor be unavailable or unwilling to proceed when his cells are required, the recipient, with a destroyed immune system, would simply die. More so than previously, this led me to wonder what specifically are the requirements for a stem cell donor match. As found on the London Health Sciences Centre website , the match is found in "human leukocyte antigens" (HLA), which ar...