Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Pinoy Pod 37

No easy match for biracial Fil-Am toddler in dire need of bone marrow donor

This week on Pinoy Pod, we interview the parents of Harrison Leonardo, a 2-year-old San Leandro boy who is battling Acute Myloid Leukemia, a cancer of the blood.

Harrison is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant, but the search for a donor has been difficult because of his mixed heritage. He is half Filipino and half white and his donor will most likely share the same heritage.

Harrison's parents, Stephanie and O.J. Leonardo, and little brother Lucas.
According to the
National Marrow Donor Program, of the 6 million people now registered as donors, only 34,000 are Pinoy, and even fewer are biracial.

In this podcast, Pinoy Pod's Michelle Louie talks to Harrison's parents, O.J. Leonardo - a San Francisco firefighter - and his wife, Stephanie Isaacson, who are trying to raise awareness about the lack of biracial donors on the national bone marrow registry.

They're hoping the more people who step forward to get tested, the greater the chance of finding a match for Harrison or others who await a life-saving transplant.

MORE ON PINOY POD AT SFGATE.COM.

LISTEN/PAKINGGAN

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a cousin who is biracial and we are urging her to get tested but she's too selfish to do so.

Thu Mar 22, 10:49:00 AM  

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