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Xiao Mei Liu has spent her young life making things happen for others. Once she completed her master's program in Switzerland, Liu started China's first women's website and continues to look for ways to build schools in the poorest parts of China. But now Liu is in limbo, stuck in a hospital, waiting for a stranger to make things happen for her.
Liu, 29, a San Jose resident who works in the business development department at Viador in Sunnyvale, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in August of last year and became very ill very quickly. Her life will end soon if she does not find a bone marrow donor. Yet in a registry of five million possible donors, Liu has not found a match.
The problem, says Carol Gillespie, executive director of the Asian American Donor Program in Oakland, is that there are not enough Asian American donors. Out of the five million registered donors, only 6.5 percent are Asian or Pacific Islander.
This is a concern because genetically Liu is more likely to find a match within her own ethnic community. Asians like Liu have slimmer odds of finding a matching donor because of the small donor pool.
"I think the lower number of Asian donors is due to a lack of education and awareness about the need for bone marrow donors," says Gillespie. Liu asked the Asian American Donor Program for help in finding a match. The program has helped her by arranging for special bone marrow registration drives and by publicizing Liu's plight to reach the Asian American community.
"We do this all the time because there are so many people in need," Gillespie says. A 6-year-old adopted Chinese girl in New Mexico, for example, needs to find a matching donor soon. "How can you deny someone like that a life?" Gillespie asks.
Gillespie says the process of donating bone marrow is harmless, and the most pain a donor would feel is soreness. "When they take out bone marrow, the marrow naturally regenerates itself so the bodies become whole once again. A donor's health isn't compromised at all," Gillespie says.
She says the public response to the registration drives has been positive. Since last month, the program has registered 102 willing Asian donors. But Liu has still not found a match.
Gillespie says Liu has six to nine months to live if she does not find a donor. Her fate rests in the hands of a stranger.
To learn about coming registration drives, visit www.aadp.org or call 800.59.DONOR.
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