Become a Bone Marrow Donor

Help Save a Life

by Catherine Anaya

I can't stop thinking about how I'd feel if I were 40 years old, a single mother of a precious 8-year old boy with precious little ammunition to fight off cancer that relentlessly ravages my body.

When you talk to Lupe Saavedra she speaks about that very reality - her reality - without the sense of defeat I expected. She's encouraged, optimistic - almost excited about the future. She's in a partial remission, but doctors have told her a bone-marrow transplant is about the only hope they have of ridding any and all cancer cells her recent round of chemotherapy hasn't destroyed. This is not the first time Lupe's faced a war with cancer. Her father died from it in 1985. Her brother died from it four years later. Lupe's bout started five years ago with a severe pain in her leg, then a bump on the right side of her chin. She thought it was related to some dental work she was having done at the time. Then, her neck started to stiffen, her liver started giving her problems and she found out she was anemic. The growth on her chin turned out to be a cancer tumor.

Doctors removed it and in the process learned she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia - a cancer that attacks white blood cells and spreads to other organs. Tumors were growing on Lupe's rib, behind her eye and in her neck, causing all the symptoms she'd been experiencing the last five months. She endured chemotherapy, radiation and painful spinal taps. Finally, by early this year - she was given a clean bill of health. She had beaten the disease. But the joy was short lived. By the end of March she experienced shooting, sharp pain in her chest and her back. The cancer had returned. Lupe is going through chemotherapy again but she says doctors are no longer convinced it will work alone. "They're saying that if it doesn't get it this time it'll just keep coming back", she says. A bone marrow transplant may be her only viable weapon of defense. In most cases, a match is made with someone of the same racial or ethnic group. None of Lupe's relatives match. So the quest is on to find another donor.

That's the challenging part. Of the nearly 6 million registered donors with the National Marrow Donor Program, only about 400,000 are Hispanics. The low representation is about the same for African Americans and even worse for Native Americans - only 70,000. Oscar Correa, and education and recruitment specialist for the National Marrow Donor Program says, "There's not enough education and awareness being done in the minority communities to let people know that, 'hey you know you can participate in this program and save someone's life - someone from your own racial ethnic group.' "

The test to register as a donor involves a simple prick of the finger. Because the need for minority donors is so great, the National Marrow Donor Program will waive the testing fee for minorities. You may be Lupe's only chance of survival and not even know it. Please become a marrow donor. Do it for her. Do it for her son. Do it for yourself. For more information about marrow donation go to www.marrow.org.