Editorial
By: Mae Rhine
Here’s a chance to literally save a life.
Recent South Hunterdon Regional High School graduate Kathleen Foran was diagnosed Feb. 13 with chronic myeloid leukemia. CML is a cancer that affects a person’s white blood cells and disrupts production of other types of blood cells.
CML causes the bone marrow to make too many granulocytes, releasing them into the blood when they are too immature to work properly. Normally, the white blood cells repair and reproduce in an orderly and controlled manner. CML causes this process to get out of control with the white cells constantly dividing, eventually filling up the bone marrow and preventing it from making enough healthy red blood cells.
The patient experiences severe tiredness, frequent bruising and bleeding and appears exceptionally pale due to the lack of red blood cell production in the chronic phase of this disease. Unfortunately, it progresses to a much more aggressive disease in a short period of time.
Although nearly 30 percent of all patients in need find a suitable donor within their immediate family, usually their siblings, the remaining 70 percent must rely on strangers to find a suitable match.
Ms. Foran hopes to find that help in her local community.
Ms. Foran and her family are hosting a bone marrow drive to recruit new voluntary marrow donors, hoping that one of those new recruits will be a suitable match. With the help of bone marrow drives like the one they are sponsoring at St. John’s Parish Hall, 44 Bridge St., Sunday, March 23, they hope to keep the dream alive for Ms. Foran and other patients searching for suitable donors.
They are counting on help from the local community. It takes 10 to 15 minutes and a simple pinprick blood test. Potential donors must be between the ages of 18 and 61.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 23.
Call and see how you can help or show up at the drive.
For information on bone marrow donation procedures and how to register with the HLA Registry, write to the Registry at 70 Grand Ave., River Edge, N.J., 07661, or call Cheryl Papasso at (800) 336-3363, extension 27.