Peter Walker – Young Gravity

Peter Gabriel – 3

Back in February I wrote about my friend Jake’s girlfriend Christine. A lot of bloggers and readers helped out by signing up on the registry, donating money, spreading the word, and sending well wishes to Jake and Christine. We were very surprised at and grateful for the response. It’s really remarkable how much people are willing to help complete strangers.

It’s been a while since that post, and I owe it to everyone to let people know how thing’s are coming along. Unfortunately, things haven’t really gotten better. Here’s the latest news from Christine, posted to her site forum yesterday:

Continue reading Scan results.

For more information on Christine, including the latest news and upcoming events, check out SaveChristine.com. If you are of Filipino descent and are considering a marrow donation, please go to www.marrow.com or call 1(800) MARROW2 to find the closest location to take the test and register for the national bone marrow registry. Even if you are not a match for Christine, you might be able to help someone else. There’s really no commitment at any step of the process, so if at some point you change your mind and decide to withdraw, that’s perfectly fine.

Thanks for reading.

My friend Jake’s girlfriend is very sick and needs help. Please read:

Dear Friends,

This isn’t a happy email.

We got the results of Christine’s biopsy over the holidays. It turns out that her cancer is back. It’s a rare and extremely aggressive form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The survival rates are not good. The fact that it’s the same cancer is the worst possible news, because it means that it did not respond to treatment.

Medically, the only option Christine has left is a Bone Marrow Transplant. The survival rate of this procedure is 30-40%. Of those who do survive the procedure itself, only 50% survive the next two years. However, if she does survive those two years, it means the cancer won’t come back.

This is a pretty terrible option. However, the non medical option is also horrible. Her doctor says that if she chooses not to have the Bone Marrow Transplant, she’ll be dead within a year.

I’m sorry to dump such upsetting news on everyone, but I need your help.

I need to find her a bone marrow donor.

This is hard enough for the average person. There are over 20,000 types of bone marrow, so the average person has a 1 in 20,000 chance of finding a match. These numbers are even worse for Christine. Because she is Filipino, she needs to find a donor of the same ethnic background, and there are hardly any Filipinos on the National Registry.

Because we caught the cancer early, right now is our best chance of having the Bone Marrow Transplant work. Every day we lose her chances of surviving drop.

So please, contact your friends, and ask them to contact their friends. Anyone you know who is Filipino and between the ages of 18 and 61 is a potential donor. The system is nationwide, so it doesn’t matter where they live. Signing up on the registry is easy and painless. All it requires is a simple blood test. Some hospitals charge a small fee for this blood test, however if your friends contact me directly, I can put them in touch with one of the hundreds of local organizations that will do the blood test for free. They can use this email address:

jacobkrueger@gmail.com

You can reassure your friends that signing up for the registry does not require donating any bone marrow. If it turns out they are a match, they will be contacted, and can make the decision at that point about becoming a donor.

There are lots of misconceptions about donating bone marrow. (I know I was terrified of doing it before I learned how minor the procedure actually is.) The procedure is simple and safe. You will be anesthetized the whole time, so you will not feel anything. When the procedure is over, you may have some soreness in the area for a few days and you may feel a little tired. That’s it. The bone marrow you donate is replenished within 3-4 weeks. And again, you will only undergo this procedure if your blood sample shows that you are a match and you decide to donate, in which case the slight soreness you’ll be feeling will be saving someone’s life.

All medical expenses for the donor will be covered by Christine’s insurance. And as I mentioned before, if they contact me directly, I can put them in touch with an organization near them that will put them on the National Registry for free and also make sure they are listed as a Sponsor for Christine. Here’s my email address again:

jacobkrueger@gmail.com

You can find out more about the registry and the donation procedure at this website:

www.marrow.com

In the next few days, we’ll be setting up a Myspace account to keep you updated on Christine’s progress. Let me know if you’d like to be included and I’ll add you to the list.

We are exploring alternative methods of treatment as well. So if you know of anyone who’s had success treating cancer with any methods, please let me know so I can pass the information on to Christine.

Finally, a request from Christine. If it fits with your beliefs, she’d like you to say a prayer for her tonight.

Thanks so much for your help,

Jake

PS. Regardless of your ethnic background, if you’re interested in donating please feel free to contact me and I will put you in touch with an organization that can help put you on the registry.

I also received an email forwarded from Sean Kent today. Apparently Christine “needs a bone marrow transplant within the next 2 months to survive.” There is a health fair this Sunday in the SF Valley where you can take a free test. From Sean: “Christine’s hospital – City of Hope – has agreed to rush getting the results for anyone who is tested at this event!!!!!! This is a great opportunity to save our friend’s life!!!”

Details:
Our Lady Of Peace Parish
15444 Nordhoff St
North Hills, CA 91343

Thanks for reading.

Curbed.LA is written by some urban planners I know. Check it out if you’re interested in urban planning, real estate, or architecture.

Eventually you have to give up waiting on Full Tilt to give you a job. There’s probably some kind of restriction on how many LA-based bloggers they can employ (though if Joe Speaker or Absinthe announces next month he’s making the switch, I’m going to kill somebody).

Anyway, I’ll be starting my new job next week. Drop me a line if there’s something you’ve always wanted to see on MySpace. Erm, it’s not a Planning job.