Alberta toddler Ezra Marfo laid to rest in Calgary

Ezra Marfo, the young Albertan who lost his battle with acute myelogenous leukemia – a rare form of cancer – was laid to rest in Calgary on Saturday.

Ezra and his family made headlines nationwide when they embarked on a national search to find him a stem cell match.

Ezra passed away last week, without ever finding a match.

In Calgary, his loved ones gathered Saturday to say a final farewell.

A slideshow with photos and videos of Ezra was shown, as friends and family wiped tears.

Photo shown at Ezra Marfo’s funeral on Sept. 24, 2022. (Credit: CityNews/Danina Falkenberg)

One of the challenges in finding a stem cell match for the two-year-old was that donors and recipients were much more likely to be a match if there was a shared ethnic background.

Less than one per cent of the Canadian Blood Services stem cell registry is made up of people of African descent.

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That’s why Ezra’s family is carrying on his legacy by encouraging Canadians to join the national stem cell registry to potentially save a life.

“When we started there were very few people, especially people of African and Caribbean origin, on the stem cell registry. So for over a year, we couldn’t find a match for him,” said Jacob Marfo, Ezra’s father.

“We are grateful for the opportunity that through Ezra a lot of people in the African Canadian community are getting to know the importance of stem cells,” said Richard Adjei, the pastor at the Church of Pentecost in Calgary. “And Ezra is a hero for helping to initiate that.”