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Marrow donor sought
By Suzanne Tswei
for leukemia patient
Star-BulletinWillie "Maurice" Osby looks healthy, but he has a fatal blood disease.
The only hope for the 31-year-old father stricken with chronic myelogenous leukemia is a bone marrow transplant, which requires a difficult search for a compatible donor.
"He's going to have a hard time finding a match," said Roy Yonashiro, who is the donor recruitment coordinator for the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
Because some tissue types are unique to certain ethnic groups, Osby's best bet is within his own African ethnicity. Such donors, however, are not in large numbers, and no match has been found in searches through 4 million registered donors nationwide, Yona-shiro said.
The Hawaii registry will conduct a donor recruitment -- for people of all ethnic backgrounds and specifically for a match for Osby -- at Leeward Community College on from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the college's campus center.
Donors must be between 18 and 60, and in good health. Donors need to register only once and give a small sample of blood. For more information, call 547-6154.
"We are trying to go into a community that has a large black population," Yonashiro said. The registry teamed with the college and the Black Student Union in hopes of attracting more donors of African ancestry.
Osby, who is the father of a 21-month-old boy, was diagnosed in June 1998 with the fatal illness, which destroys his body's ability to create healthy blood cells. He takes medication that stabilizes his white blood cell count, but it is only a temporary remedy, said his wife, Shelly.
He is healthy enough to work as a counselor for at-risk teen-agers for Child and Family Services, but he needs to find a donor as soon as possible for a better chance at transplant success.
