Donations sought
for cancer patient

HILO » Big Island nurse Rozlynne Velasco has a cheerful personality, a full head of hair, and not too much pain with the right medication.

Rozlynne Velasco: The Big Isle nurse is flying to Seattle tomorrow for treatment

What she doesn't have is $50,000 for a bone-marrow transplant and four months of follow-up care in Seattle.

With $3,000 for airfare for herself and her mother and enough to cover their first month's rent in Seattle, she flies to Washington tomorrow to wait until her body is ready for treatment.

Velasco, 26, was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago. Her doctor told her chemotherapy would cause weakness, vomiting and lack of appetite.

"The whole year has been totally the opposite," she said. During seven chemo treatments, her hair fell out only twice, although that meant losing tresses that reached all the way down her back.

"To me, it's all in your mind," she said. That's a brave frame of mind for a young woman who spoke to the Star-Bulletin from a room at the Queen's Medical Center, and who is flying now because she may be too weak if she waits.

She'll be treated at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, but not until doctors get her leukemia cells down to a manageable level.

A big problem in finding a bone-marrow donor was her ethnic background -- Chinese, German, Hawaiian, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Puerto Rican and Portuguese. The closest donor is her mother, Julie Ann Deguair, although only half her genes match her daughter.

Still, doctors at "the Hutch" cancer center have had success in 16 out of 20 such cases, Velasco said.

Velasco's pastor, John Trusdell of Living Waters Assembly of God, has known her since she was 17.

"She's really outgoing. Her No. 1 pastime is karaoke," he said. She also enjoys riding motorcycles.

Her biggest worry is other family members, Trusdell said. The oldest of five children, plus four foster brothers, she juggles the job of mothering them with her own mother, who is single.

Deguair and Velasco are asking for contributions to be made out to Living Waters Assembly of God, with a notation that they are for Velasco. They can be sent to the church at 89 Maikai St., Hilo, HI 96720.