This gorgeous little girl is Julia D'Innocenzo, the niece of a childhood friend of mine. She is two years old and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant. She has leukemia with an MLL rearrangement. The MLL rearrangement makes
her odds of beating her disease much less. Her only hope is
to get back into remission and then have a stem cell transplant.
Unfortunately, her last treatment of chemo didn't work and the leukemia has returned. Her aunt describes how dire her situation is on Julia's Facebook page:
"The doctors have said that they are running out of options. Everything
left is very, very experimental. If she can find a match she will have more options, and
possibly beat this. I cannot emphasize enough how important
finding a match is to Julia's life. She is almost 3 and deserves a very happy,
healthy life and she can't have that without a match.
Please
please please tell everyone you know, especially friends and family to
join One Match today. Julia needs you and so does her family and
everyone who loves her!"
Need to know more? You can read The 6 Biggest Myths About Marrow Donation
There's no time to waste and if you even have a fleeting thought about registering for a match to help Julia, PLEASE follow it up and JOIN One Match now. Also, know that you are registering to see if you are a match and would only be donating if you are found to be - it is very hard to find a match.
And Stacie from San Francisco urges her fellow Americans to participate as matches may be found in other countries:
"If you are in the United States I do want to share that this weekend and Monday are the final 3 days of
the "Be The Match" Marrowthon here in the United States. I know that
the registries are cross matched for patients worldwide so if anyone
knows people who live in the States please let them know that for the
next three days EVERYONE (including Caucasians) in the U.S. can test
FREE of charge if they order a home test kit online:
http://www.marrow.org/JOIN
The
Marrowthon runs from June 8-22 or until 46,000 new registrants join Be
The Match. Normally testing for ethnic minorities and mixed
ethniciities is free due to a federal grant but Caucasians are charged
a fee that typically ranges from $25 to $52.
The Be the Match
website here in the U.S. says roughly 50% of matches are international
so it's very possible for Julia to find her match here in the U.S."
You can check Julia's Facebook page for updates. With your help they may be happy ones.
I really hope that a match for Julia will be found - sadly I am located in Europe so I guess I fall through as a potential donor..this story has made me thinking actually what position I take in the whole donation thing. Julia is such a gorgeous girl and deserves to live long, it's hard to underrstand why not everyone is a registered donor. On the other hand I must admit I was a bit fearful for completely unknown reasons to donate but I think I will now make the step and get a donor card.
Please keep us posted on Julia :)
Posted by: sar. | June 23, 2009 at 01:58 PM
Thank you so much, Sar. That will mean so much to her family, I know that the fact that people care is a source of strength for them. I was planning to register when I go back to Canada for a visit but I just found out that anyone who has lived in the UK or France can't donate, and I've lived in both, obviously. So I'm trying to do what I can to encourage others to register. Thanks so much, and I will keep you updated. Denise ♥♥♥
Posted by: Denise @ Swelle | June 23, 2009 at 02:05 PM