I just learned on
Janet Liang's blog that a very young patient, just 16 months old, has passed away after a transplant failed.
Little Barry Pham was a patient that I was aware of but not completely familiar with. Janet had kept herself up to date on his condition as they both suffered from the same type of leukemia: acute lymphoblastic leukemia classified “bi-phenotypic” in nature.
Janet implores in her blog post that if you live in these areas to please consider attending these drives to register to become a potential donor in the National Marrow Donor Program, or sign up to be a volunteer and help recruit donors a these events:
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Midwest:
Carthage, Missouri on August 6th and 7th 2010
1900 Grand Avenue, Carthage, MO 64836
9:00 am to 9:00 pm
For more details about this particular drive and how you can help, please contact Ted Nguyen, the Vietnamese Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for A3M, at tnguyen@A3Mhope.org
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Northern California:
San Jose, Grand Century Mall on August 14, 2010
1111 Story Road, San Jose, CA 95122
11:00 am to 3:00 pm
For more details about this particular drive and how you can help, please contact Annie Doan, the Vietnamese Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for AADP, at annie@aadp.org
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Says Janet:
"It is actually best if you are able to crumple up your sleeves and volunteer an hour or so of your time to recruiting marrow donors to join the registry. All you need to do is contact those coordinators I’ve listed above, and I assure you that they will get back to you as soon as they can. Sitting behind a computer screen and pressing a button to share this is fair enough in the internet community, no doubt, but sometimes it all comes down to face-to-face persuasion to save someone’s life. I can’t think of a better person today that we should to do this in honor of than little Barry.
For more information about his courageous story, please visit his website at: www.savebarry.org"
