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‘Miracle rose’
gives Nishimura
new hope

The HPD captain needs a
second marrow transplant
but says he won't give up

---

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Alvin Nishimura spent Christmas Day golfing with his boss, Honolulu police chief Lee Donohue, and has no fear of what lies ahead.

"Whatever happens, happens, but I can't ever give up," said Nishimura, the Honolulu police captain who learned 15 days ago that his acute lymphoblastic leukemia had returned, leaving him in need of a second bone-marrow transplant.

"The Lord is with me so I'm not afraid. I'm going to make it."

Nishimura and his wife, Cynthia, attended a Christmas Eve service and were inspired by Rev. Dan Chun's sermon about the "miracle rose" tradition at First Presbyterian Church.

"Every Christmas, they hand out these artificial miniature roses during the service and we pray for miracles," Cynthia Yip Nishimura said.

"He gave Alvin a rose and prayed for him to get well.

"Pastor Chun told us about this man with an inoperable brain tumor who had only six months to live. The guy prayed for a miracle and in a few weeks, the tumor was gone."

Whenever there's a miracle, the rose is returned to the church, Cynthia Nishimura said.

"I told him one day, I'm sending my rose back," said Alvin Nishimura, who dedicated his prayers to Chun's mother, who has cancer.

Nishimura received his transplant in May at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., with bone marrow from an anonymous donor.

If the donor -- whose identity is unknown to the Nishimuras -- agrees to help again, the procedure will be performed at either the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle or at Queen's Medical Center.