You could save this boy's life

7-year-old Ryan is in need of a bone marrow donor.



7-year-old Vietnamese American leukemia patient Ryan Jacoby is in desperate need of a bone marrow donor. He has beat leukemia before -- his brother was a match -- but unfortunately his cancer recently returned.

7-Year-Old Cancer Patient Seeks Compatible Bone Marrow Donor

You may know that it's often difficult to find bone marrow matches for patients of Asian descent, because Asian Americans are poorly represented in the bone marrow donor registry. Frankly, we're terrible at this.

What makes finding a match for Ryan particularly challenging is that he's of Vietnamese and Caucasian descent. Bone marrow matches on the registry are even lower for mixed race patients.

#allysfight

Guest Post by Andrew Kim



The Background: Bone Marrow Donation vs. Asians

Every day, thousands of East Asians need life-saving bone marrow transplants. In the UK, of the 617,000 registered marrow donors, only 0.5% are East Asian. The situation is similar in the U.S. registry; and worldwide, the numbers are no different. On average, 350 out of every 10,000 people in the US are registered donors compared to just 14 out of 10,000 in China. Why is this? What is holding back Asians from donating?

I think that Asians are generous. With money, with time -- there's never any question to help our families, our friends, our villages and communities. But our bodies...? When I told my mother that I had signed up to be an organ donor for instance, it was met with...

"You mean they'll take your eyes and heart? Can't you do something else instead?"

My mother has spent countless hours volunteering at schools, the inner city, on mission trips to other countries. But here, there was hesitation... Fear. There is something about our bodies, our sacred temples, and giving pieces away.

I am not trying to dismiss people's beliefs and ideals. But in bone marrow donation, the reality is that a small act, can have a tremendous affect. It can save a life. 90% of all bone marrow donation is just giving blood. Blood is taken from one arm, filtered in a machine to capture valuable marrow stem cells, and the rest is pumped back into the other arm. Getting tested is even easier. All you need to do is swab the inside of your mouth with a Q-tip and send it off to a lab.

Match4Aary: 10-year-old kid needs a bone marrow donor

Match will likely come from a donor of Vietnamese/Asian and Afghan/Central Asian descent.



A call for help from Canada. Aaryan is a 10-year-old kid suffering from a rare blood disorder called Aplastic Anemia. His best chance of survival is a transplant from a bone marrow match within the new few months. His parents, Khalid and Jenny are asking for your help to find a donor -- you could help save Aaryan's life.

Testing to see if you are a match is as simple as a swab of the inside of the cheek. Once added to the registries, OneMatch (Canada) or Be the Match (US), even if you're not matched specifically to Aary, you could still be matched and save the life of another patient in Canada, United States or around the world.

It's most likely that a match for Aaryan will come from the same ethnic and ancestral background. This means that there is a great need for donors of Vietnamese/Asian and Afghan/Central Asian ethnicities. Unfortunately, these groups are dramatically underrepresented in the National Bone Marrow Registries.

Here's how you can help:

Mai Duong needs your help.

Leukemia patient urgently needs a bone marrow or umbilical cord stem cell transplant



Mai Duong is a 34-year-old woman from Montreal who is fighting for her life. Last year, she was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and beat it. But 10 months after being given a clean bill of health, she relapsed. Leukemia. "For the second time, because life's a bitch." But she is not going down without a fight.

Leukemia patient calls on visible minorities to donate stem cells

Mai, the mother of a 4-year-old, is currently in the hospital receiving chemotherapy treatment, but her chances of survival will be greatly increased by a stem cell donation, either through cord blood or a bone marrow transplant -- most likely, from a compatible donor of Vietnamese descent, like herself.

Unfortunately, only 19 percent of bone marrow donors in Quebec are non-white. And just one percent of the bone marrow registry is composed of Vietnamese people. Mai's brother, who had a 30 percent chance of matching, was not a match. So she's turning to you, good people of the internet, to get the word out.

Could you be the match that saves Baylor's life?

7-year-old multiracial leukemia patient needs a bone marrow match



Passing along this news of a kid that could use your help... Two years ago, 7-year-old Baylor battled leukemia and beat it. Unfortunately, his family recently found out that he relapsed, and he needs your help.

Baylor is undergoing treatment but will need bone marrow transplant to survive. Since he is multiracial -- Asian and Caucasian -- his marrow match will likely come from a donor who is also multiracial.

There are bone marrow donor registration drives happening this week in the Bay Area -- it only takes ten minutes! Refer to the flyer above. You can also request a home kit, which is crazy easy to do.

Could you be the donor who saves Baylor's life? Even if you're not his match, you could be the lifeline someone else needs. For further updates, visit the A Match for Bay Facebook page. For more information about registering to be a marrow donor, visit the website of the Asian American Donor Program.

AADP's 7th Annual Laugh For Lives 2014

Friday, March 7 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco


What's up, San Francisco. On Friday, March 7, the Laugh for Lives comedy show will be happening at the Palace of Fine Arts. Proceeds will benefit the Asian American Donor Program, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the availability of stem cell donors for patients with life threatening diseases. Performers that night include Eli Nicolas, Paul Ogata, Omid Singh, and Tina Kim. Here's a promo for the show:

Donny's mom needs a bone marrow match

I've previously written Nina Louie and her battle against cancer, but I read this front page article in today's Los Angeles Times and it broke my heart all over again: Fighting cancer to see son grow up.

Nina, mother to 2-year-old Donny, is fighting Stage IV B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive form of blood cancer. Doctors say her only hope of survival is in a 1-in-20,000 chance of finding a bone marrow match within a month. While she's been dealing with her illness, she's also been trying to shield Donny from finding out she's sick. But most importantly, she's counting the littlest milestones and just wants to live to see him grow up.

Asians are a good at a lot of things, but one thing we really suck at is registering to be bone marrow donors. Have you registered? You could save a life. To find out more about becoming a bone marrow donor, visit Be The Match or Nina Louie's website at SaveNina.com.

Nina needs a bone marrow match

I recently heard from some friends about Nina Louie, a wife and mother who is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. She has two months to find a donor.

As I've said her many times before, there's a severe shortage of minority donors in the National Registry, and her chances of finding a match will be much more likely from someone of Asian descent. Could you be the match that saves Nina's life? Here's some more information about her situation:

13-year-old meets bone marrow donor who saved her life

Don't tell me that registering to be a bone marrow donor doesn't make a difference. It makes a difference. Leukemia survivor Vicky Tran is living proof. Last week, on the one-year anniversary of the bone marrow transplant operation that saved her life, 13-year-old Vicky met her donor, Vincent Pan, in person for the first time: Bone Marrow Donor Meets Girl Whose Life He Saved.

Emily Needs Stem Cells

I recently heard from Emily Sun, a 36-year-old Australian woman of Chinese ancestry who has been undergoing treatment for Non-Hodgkin's Primary Mediastinal Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (PMBCL). Her chances of survival depend on an allogeneic stem cell transplant, and she is in dire need of a healthy donor.

Are you the person who could help save her life?

Enter the A3M Public Service Announcement Contest

It's time to pick up your video camera for a good cause. Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M) has announced a Public Service Announcement Contest with the aim of getting the word out about the need for more Asian American bone marrow donors, ages 18-44.

Let's be real: when it comes to bone marrow donor registration, our community sucks. So start brainstorming and produce a public service announcement urging folks to join the Be The Match Registry. Be creative, and think about the impact your video could make -- you could help save a life. The grand prize winner will receive $1000, and a runner-up winner will get $200.

Here are some submission requirements:

Stuff Asians Suck At: Registering to be a bone marrow donor.

Passing along a message for a friend.

My friend Karin is asking friends to consider signing up to be a potential stem cell donor. Stem cell transplants are used to save the lives of those with aggressive cancer. Her sister Ginny has advanced lymph cancer, and we are searching for a stem cell match for her. The best match will be a Chinese person between 18-45 years old. Most registered donors are European, which puts Asian patients at a disadvantage.

It's simple to sign up. You fill out a form online, and you receive a kit in the mail. Once you sign up, you must be willing to donate, though you can change your mind later for medical or other reasons. If they call you as a potential match, there is additional testing, and if you are approved, they will take stem cells from your blood (not bone marrow). It's a commitment, but it's also the opportunity to save someone's life.

If you would like to register, you can sign up here: http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx

More info here: http://www.a3mhope.org/
http://breakthroughs.cityofhope.org/tag/be-the-match/

Please contact Karin at karinc@gmail.com or (917) 209-9602 if you have any questions. And thank you for considering this request for help.