There’s a big bone marrow registration drive this Saturday in Milpitas and the focus is on getting more minorities on the registry.<\/p>\n
It’s been only a year since Carole Glasgow’s son Nick died of cancer. His efforts to find a bone marrow match were posted on every social networking site — reaching millions around the world.<\/p>\n
The fact that Nick was part Caucasian and part Japanese made it nearly impossible to find someone with similar DNA markers. <\/p>\n
“After word got out and people starting registering we found two perfect matches. That was a very happy day,” Glasgow said.<\/p>\n
But his leukemia came back and like Nick, there are many people in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n
“When you mix Caucasian or when you mix two races together, it makes finding your match more difficult,” Jonathan Leong from the Asian American Donor Program said.<\/p>\n
For a Caucasian, the chances of finding a match are 85 percent. But for some of mixed-race heritage it is much less — 30 percent and once you find the person; you have to hope he or she is still on board.<\/p>\n
Nick, his family and friends managed to get 3,000 mix-raced people on the bone marrow registry.<\/p>\n
“We have to get more people of mixed race on the registry. It’s as simple as that,” Leong said.<\/p>\n
A swab kit is all that’s needed to register and if you are matched with a patient 75 percent of the time, the stem cells are collected through a nonsurgical procedure pretty much like donating blood.<\/p>\n
Recently, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation that allows employees to take paid time off to make a bone marrow or organ donation. That was state St. Sen. Mark Desaulnier’s bill.<\/p>\n
Glasgow and her son’s friends say there’s a lot more to do to raise awareness.<\/p>\n
“He would be proud that we are continuing the fight,” she said. <\/p>\n