Bone marrow drive
may help 3An Okinawan group launches
a campaign to expand the registry
The Hawaii United Okinawa Association is urging the public to register with the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
The registry is focusing its efforts to help three Hawaii residents who need bone marrow transplants.
Tu Tran, a husband and father, was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a malignant tumor of the bone marrow. The 29-year-old Kapolei man is a journeyman painter.
He is of Vietnamese and Chinese descent.
Ross Unebasami, a 20-year-old University of Hawaii student who loves to play the saxophone, suffers from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
He is of Japanese and Korean ethnicity.
Paul Nakamura Jr., a triathlete who runs a small farm, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. The 50-year-old Aiea resident is of Japanese descent.
On average, Hawaii has a dozen or more people in need of a bone marrow transplant a year who come to the attention of Hawaii's transplant program.
"There are quite a few more that never get the chance," said Dr. Randal Wada, medical director of the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry. "They keep waiting, and most of them run out of time."
A patient is more likely to find a match in his or her own racial group, but not necessarily so, said Wada.
Volunteer donors can register Saturday at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life, 6 to 10 p.m. at Mililani High School.
The Hawaii United Okinawa Association will sponsor entertainment at another bone marrow drive June 22 at Pearlridge Shopping Center, Uptown, near Center Stage from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
To register, volunteer donors must be between 18 and 60, in good health and willing to donate to those whom they may match.
A sample of blood will be collected by a finger stick and tested by a tissue-typing laboratory.
Donors need to register just once. Those already registered are asked to update information by calling the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry at 547-6154.