Find us on Facebook Text to Win! OakvillePlace.com Text `Oakville to 889988 for a chance to WIN up to $500 in Oakville Place Gift Cards! Standard message and/or data rates may apply. One text per phone number per week until September 26. 11 Friday , A ugust 13, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m Little known about Smyths illness Continued from page 10 Administrative building in September, much like Oakville did last month. When Smyth was diagnosed as a child, doctors didnt know much about the illness. In 1995, the family moved to Montreal, where his father got a job at Bell Canada and Smyths condi- tion seemed to be stable. But during the next three years, he took a turn for the worse and became ill more frequently. In 1998, upon the recommendation of doc- tors in Quc, the family moved back to Oakville so Smyth could be closer to the Hospital for Sick Children. Because the illness was relatively new at the time, doctors told his par- ents if David was going to get sick, he was going to get sick in his teenage years. There was no guaran- tee, however, due to the lack of data. Beyond that, they didnt really know what would happen. Sure enough, when my son turned 17, 18 and then 19, we thought we made it through the gauntlet and we didnt have that problem anymore, Mike Smyth said. So no sooner than we start to think like that, then (in June) our son started complaining about hip problems. We took him to our local doctor and he said, Here, take this, and he took a pill or two and nothing got better. It got worse and we took him to McMaster University Hospital, where they treat him now as an adult. The doctors started running blood tests, x-rays and MRIs, discov- ering he has an advanced stage of leukemia. It happened quickly. Three weeks ago, our son was OK and now, all of a sudden, hes lay- ing flat on his back getting chemotherapy (and) radiation treat- ment, Smyth said. He almost lost his right leg in July. His whole right leg went numb. He was rapidly losing every nerve in his leg and if it happened any longer, it would pretty much be a useless leg. His son remains at McMaster Hospital. Its very difficult to give the pos- sibility of finding a match for a patient whose awaiting a stem cell transplant because its very different to match a patient with the HLA typ- ing versus a blood type, said Mary- See Donor page 14