WILL YOU MARROW MY DAUGHTER?
Tracy Jalbuena, age 43, wife , mother of two beautiful kids, ages 15 & 10 years of age, Emergency Room physician.
She has a very rare disease. No, let’s back up. Her dad has a very rare (9 in a million) serious disease called Primary Amyloidosis. Tracy has the same disease ... which is not hereditary. This set of circumstances has not been seen in first degree relatives before! The world over!
Now Tracy has Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer and a cousin disease to Amyloidosis. But wait. She has a rare subset of Myeloma which is very aggressive. Both of these diseases arise from the bone marrow and are insidious and vicious.
Tracy urgently needs a stem cell transplant, formerly known as a bone marrow transplant. This will be her second one. The first was an “auto” with her own stem cells; the second will be an “allo” with donor cells.
Guess what? There is no donor! There is ONE person out of the millions listed in the National Marrow Registry who matches Tracy, but this individual is unavailable to donate for one year. Why a scarcity of donors? Tracy happens to be of Filipino and European-American ancestry and there are not enough Filipino American people who are aware of the need to donate life saving stem cells. There are not enough Asian donors in general to meet the needs of our diverse melting pot culture. A Caucasian person has a 93% chance of finding a match, while one of Asian or mixed Asian descent has only a 73% chance of successfully matching with a donor. A sibling has only 30% chance of matching and Tracy’s sibs did not.
Tracy’s work in her chosen field followed an extended medical school course and residency. For just three years, Dr. J. cared for patients in Camden, Maine and surrounds with great skill, professionalism and compassion. Then her career was interrupted. This is when Amyloidosis stepped into her life. And now Myeloma, too. The many years of study and preparation were more than the number of years that she practiced her profession in the ER. Oh, how she loves and misses her work and has earned the respect of patients and colleagues!
Her mom .. that’s me .. always knew that her firstborn child, a daughter, was a matchless, one-of-a-kinder. Tracy has a personality that stands out and shines brightly! Yet she seems to be in a class of her own when it comes to misfortune, too. The rarest of the rare diseases and no stem cell donor because of her uncommon ancestry.
In my mother’s heart, I know that a life saving donor can be found for my “matchless” daughter. You can help. You can help Tracy and you can help many others of any and all backgrounds by signing up to be a donor. It is easy to enroll with the National Marrow Registry. If you are 18-44 years of age, just go to BE THE MATCH (bethematch.org), sign up and receive a free cheek swab kit by mail. Parents of my generation, please, please encourage your young adult kids to sign up and be there for someone in need. Also, kindly share this message with family, friends, organizations, universities and especially in the Fil-Am community.
Be a matchmaker, a marrow mate, a life saver by giving something so precious that only YOU can give ~~ your healthy stem cells ~~ to another who needs it!!
Kathryn Jalbuena
