A young woman from Terrebonne who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia is appealing to the public for what could be a life-saving favour.

Julie Ouimette, 18, needs a bone marrow transplant and has been looking for a suitable donor for 10 years.

Ouimette has already endured two rounds of chemotherapy and stem cell transplants.

She’s now in remission, the ideal time for a transplant.

Her doctors want her to have the transplant within the next two months, before she runs a greater risk of relapse.

With that short window of opportunity in sight, Ouimette is now appealing to the public to get tested and see if their bone marrow is a match for a life-saving transplant.

“Give your bone marrow because you can save a life,” she said. “Not only me, but other children or people that need it.”

Finding a donor means testing for compatible Human Leukocyte Antigen [HLA] markers. HLAs are proteins found in the body’s cells that the immune system uses to identify and defend against foreign bodies such as bacteria and viruses.

A person’s HLA combination is inherited from their parents, said Marie-France Vachon of the bone marrow transplant program at the Ste-Justine Children's Hospital in Montreal.

Ouimette has a rare HLA combination, so finding a match has been more difficult than for other patients.

It’s unclear how long Ouimette will remain in remission so finding a suitable donor is now an urgent matter.

“We're talking about saving her life,” she said. “ So we've looked everywhere around the world, and no perfect match yet.”

Anyone interested in donating can visit the Hema Quebec website to see if they're eligible.