Update on Bone Marrow Donor Drive + Misc

A quick update on Christina's Bone Marrow Donor Drive this past Sunday. Are you sitting down?
Over TWO HUNDRED people showed up to do mouth swabs!!! In fact, the San Diego Blood Bank ran out of forms at Person #198! They ended up giving people a flyer with the info about registering online. Thank you to everyone who participated!

To put all this in perspective, a drive usually gets 20 people.

And about every 200 people will yield one match. Not necessarily for Christina, of course. But mostly likely Sunday's drive will help save someone's life. Wow!

Here's a link for registering online FREE IN THE US UNTIL MARCH 28 and having a mouth swab kit sent to your house. Please pass on the word and the link.

Oh, and here's a link to the TV coverage on Sunday.

And while I'm going link crazy, here's a link to a review of i so don't do mysteries and an interview with moi by Mitch Wallace of the Sphagnum Patch. The review was in the March 2010 issue of the Mission Valley News and Views. Thanks, Mitch!

And, just so you're in the know, I'm currently in Baltimore, Maryland (much to Child #4's chagrin!) doing school visits, chilling (LITERALLY! It's cold and rainy here!) and eating crab cakes. No doubt, my next post will be about Baltimore stuff. ;)

My Friend Needs Your Help

A couple of years ago, Child #4 met a girl at school named K. Child #4 and K became very good friends. I met K's mother, Christina. Christina and I became very good friends, too.

Now, Christina needs help.

She has leukemia, and she needs an adult bone marrow donor. Desperately. As in, to help save her life. There is no match for Christina in any registry worldwide. But, maybe, just maybe, you're the match. How do you find out? A mouth swab.

Christina is a 32-year-old San Diego wife and mom with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She has a ten-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son.

In July 2008, Christina was diagnosed with this rare blood cancer. Last year, she received a bone marrow transplant using umbilical cord stem cells. She was in remission for about six months. Then, in January, her cancer came back.

Christina's best chance for survival is an adult bone marrow donor.

The San Diego Blood Bank is sponsoring a drive this Sunday March 14 to find a donor.

Here are the details:

BONE MARROW DONOR DRIVE
Where: Pathways Community Church, 9626 Carlton Hills Blvd, Santee, CA 92071
When: Sunday, March 14 from 8 am to 1 pm
Who: Donors must be between 18 and 60 years old, in good health and willing to consider donating for anyone in need
What: It's a mouth swab. Quick, painless, free.

Extra Exciting Info: Channel 6 will provide live media coverage of this event from
8am-10am. Brooke Landau will broadcast her weather break segments from the bone marrow donor drive. She will interview Christina's husband and their children. Also, Christina will be watching from her hospital room.

If you do attend the drive, be sure to say hi to Volunteer Mr. Summy. He has curly blond hair that really needs an appointment with a hairdresser. :)


If you don't live in San Diego or if you do, but can't make it to the drive, you can still join the national registry and potentially help Christina or someone else. With the code below, it's free (normally it's $52) until March 28 (thank you Bone Marrow Foundation of San Diego).

Click here to register for free. If that link doesn't work, Click here and, when prompted for promo code, type in: Christina.

You'll receive a kit in the mail. You swab your mouth and send the kit back. And voila, you're registered.

Please help find a bone marrow donor for Christina. Yes, it's kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack. Let's find that needle!

Christina and her children

If you're worried about what would actually happen should end up matching, Click here to debunk some myths about bone marrow donation.