Red Cross Mounts Bone Marrow Drive

For thousands of people across the country with leukemia and other blood diseases, the chance of finding a life-saving bone marrow donor can be as little as one in 100.

But for 17-year-old Lisa Mederos, the odds are closer to one in a million.

It’s not Mederos’ illness--a potentially fatal type of anemia--that makes her chances so slim. It’s her ethnicity.

Unlike blood, which can be matched across ethnic lines, bone marrow is more likely to match if the donor and patient have the same racial makeup. According to the American Red Cross, which runs a nationwide blood marrow donation program, only about 6% of the 1 million people in the program are Latino.

To boost the odds of finding a donor for Mederos, who lives in Alhambra, and the 9,000 other critically ill people awaiting a marrow transplant, the Red Cross will hold a marrow testing drive July 24 in Sun Valley. The effectiveness of replacing diseased marrow varies greatly from patient to patient, but according to the Red Cross, a transplant increases the odds of long-term survival from less than 20% to between 45% and 80%.

Donors must be between the ages of 18 and 55 and in good health. The Red Cross first conducts a simple blood test to determine the donor’s tissue type. When a match is made, the donor undergoes additional tests.

Blood testing will be held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Our Lady of Holy Rosary Church, 7800 Vineland Ave., Sun Valley. For information call (800) 627-7692.