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We recently got word of Nico, a 13 year old boy in California of Korean and Caucasian descent, who is fighting for his life and in urgent need of finding a matching donor.
This is actually something we’d like to get more involved with as far as spreading the word about the urgency and need for more mixed race individuals to be registered as potential donors. Throughout the years that we’ve been running this website we have read many stories about mixed race individuals needing a donor transplant and never finding a match.
Let’s hope that we can find a match for Nico and other mixed race Asians looking for donors! Please consider becoming registered!
Here is more information that was provided to us regarding Nico’s story and how you can register as a potential donor:
Thousands of people with blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma are in urgent need of a blood stem cell or marrow transplant in order to survive. Every day, over 10,000 patients are desperately searching the registry for a match.
Nico, a 13 year old boy living in California, has been fighting leukemia for over 5 years. To stay alive, he urgently needs a stem cell or bone marrow transplant from a donor that is genetically compatible with him. Currently, there is no one on the donor registry who matches Nico.
In honor of Nico, please consider registering to be a potential marrow or stem cell donor (either online, right now, or at our upcoming drive). This precious gift could possibly save Nico’s life or that of another patient like him. Donors of Asian and mixed Asian-Caucasian ethnicity are particularly needed, as someone from these ethnic populations would be the best match for Nico!
Why should I sign up?
• Leukemia kills more children than any other disease. By signing up, if you are called on to become a donor, you’ll give a patient a second chance at life. (Bone marrow transplants are also used to treat children with brain tumors.)
• Only 3 out of 10 patients get the transplant that could save their lives!
• Fewer than 7% of donors on the registry are of Asian descent.
• Only 70% of Caucasians find a donor match, while less than 30% of minorities find a donor match.
• It’s relatively simple for you to become a donor, but for the person you help, it’s the difference between life and death.
What’s involved?
• Signing up to join the donor registry is quick and easy. You can sign up online to be a donor at http://join.bethematch.org/NICO or www.aadp.org and they, the National Marrow Donor Program, will send you a kit in the mail. You swab the inside of your cheek with a Q-tip and fill out the form and mail it back. That’s it — you’re on the Registry.
• You must be between the ages of 18 and 61.
• Once you’ve joined the Registry, and IF one day you are found to be a patient’s genetic match, you may be asked to donate either blood stem cells or bone marrow. These days, more and more donors give blood stem cells, rather than marrow. Donating stem cells does not hurt — it’s similar to donating blood platelets. If you donate marrow, it’s a simple outpatient procedure. There’s no cost to the donor, as it is covered by the patient’s insurance and the National Marrow Donor Program will pay for any outstanding expenses.
For more information regarding getting registered check out these sites: Mixed Marrow, National Marrow Donor Program or Asian American Donor Program (AADP).
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