Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006
10:30am-1:30pm
The Academy of Hawaiian Arts (AHA) is a location for screening donors for a bone marrow
match. The Asian American Donor Program (AADP) will manage and run a kiosk at the
halau on Saturday, December 9th from 10:30-1:30pm.
Harrison's story and how you can help
Harrison Leonardo is a two-year old boy who is fighting Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)
and needs a bone marrow transplant to survive. He's spent most of
this year fighting cancer, which went into remission in August. Unfortunately his family
learned the cancer relapsed just before Thanksgiving. He is currently hospitalized and
undergoing another round of chemotherapy while his doctors and family search for a
donor.
A bone marrow donor must have an identical Human Leukocyte Antigen type (HLA type). His
parents' and brother's HLA types do not match Harrison, so he is now searching for a
non-related donor. A suitable donor will most likely have a
similar ethnic background as Harrison, who is Filipino and
Caucasian. There is also a chance a match can be found with
someone who is of Asian descent or who is bi-racial.
Because there are few Asians, and Multi-Racial people on the
National Marrow Donor Program Registry, it is so difficult for
Harrison, and others like him to find a matching donor. You could be Harrison's
Miracle Match!
Read more about Harrison here:
www.helpharrison.com
Steps to participate:
About bone marrow donation
You will be registering your marrow type with the National
Marrow Donor Program Registry for any patient in
need.
- STEP ONE: Fill out paperwork to register as a potential
donor. You will be asked for a DL No. or SS No. You will
also be asked to provide the contact names, address, and phone numbers of 2 people
who do not live with you.
- STEP TWO: The AADP Staff will review your medical
eligibility to be a donor. Age restriction is between 18 and 60 years old.
- STEP THREE: A simple cheek swab sample is needed for analysis to
determine your tisssue type to see if you
could match a patient out there searching.
What if you match someone?
- About 1 in every 200 people on the registry will
get called in their lifetime as a potential match.
- If you are a potential match, the
NMDP wil
contact you for further testing. This will include blood
samples.
- if you are proven a good match, the doctors will
assess the situation and plan to do either a bone marrow extraction or an aphaeresis
procedure to gather blood stem cells from the bone marrow or from your circulating
blood.
Screening from home
If you are unable to attend the donor drive at AHA, then you can still help by requesting
a free testing kit be mailed to your home. To request a free kit, please call 1-800-59-DONOR
(1-800-593-6667) or visit www.aadp.org
Directions to AHA
Foothill Square Shopping Center
10700 MacArthur Blvd., Suite #4
Oakland, CA 94605
Get
map
(Park in the parking lot behind Albertson's
in the Foothill Shopping Center.)
More information
Janet Belton
510-828-4689
JLBelton888@yahoo.com
Asian American Donor Program
800-593-6667
www.aadp.org
carol@aadp.org |
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