Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301240085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE SIMPSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VALLEY'S FIRST BONE MARROW DRIVE BRINGS OUT CROWD
John Harrison watched a roomful of strangers who might someday save his life.Glenvar High School student Diane Cooper may be the bone marrow match Harrison seeks. Cooper was first in line for the tissue-typing that looks for six compatible human leukocyte antigens, or HLA. "I wanted to help out any way that I could," she said.
About 380 people showed up for the area's first bone marrow donor drive held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Southwest Roanoke.
John Harrison and Joseph Lutz need bone marrow transplants. Harrison and Lutz have acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, and they need to find donor matches.
Harrison, 25, organized the drive that he hoped would bring 200 donors into the National Marrow Donor Program. "We planned for 200 people the whole day, but we got it in one hour," he said. "I can't believe the response. It's overwhelming. There's a lot of people that need transplants."
The large turnout offers new hope for others. The Rev. Kirk Ballin, pastor of the Unitarian church, said that the odds of finding a donor within the group may not be high. "But it increases the chance for someone else," he said.
Leigh Laughom, an MRI (nuclear magnetic resonance) technician at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, gives blood often. But this was the first time two tablespoons of her blood were drawn in a bone marrow drive.
Terry Steer, who works at Catholic Charities, shared the concerns of many who could not afford to pay the $30 to $60 required to take the test. "I have wanted to do this for many years, but I couldn't afford to," she said. Harrison helped raise almost $4,000 for the drive to combat the tissue-typing costs.
But that could not cover everyone. "We were struggling about who was going to be free and who wasn't," Ballin said. He encouraged donations. The drive raised over $5,000 by the end of the day. Everyone ended up "basically free," he said.
The Carolinas Region Donor Center, a division of the Red Cross in Charlotte, N.C., sent Winston-Salem representatives to conduct the screenings. Potential donors have to be healthy and between ages 18 and 55.
Local Red Cross officials hope Roanoke will soon be able to do its own testing. Kelly Whitney said that Roanoke's Appalachian Blood Services is in the process of becoming a bone marrow center. "You have to have at least 200 people in your area registered," she said. "And this definitely pushed us over."
Appalachian Blood Services plans to work with the National Institutes of Health to get more minorities in the National Marrow Donor Program, Whitney said. Chances of finding a match are about one in 20,000 for whites, but about one in 1 million for blacks and Hispanics; chances are lower for Asians or Native Americans.
Both Harrison and Lutz, 24, plan to have their transplants at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle once a match is found. The center performs about one-third of the world's bone marrow transplants every year.
Harrison said his white blood cell count was low, but that he wanted to see the drive in action. "My doctor knows how much this means to me," he said. Harrison is undergoing chemotherapy at the Roanoke Rehabilitation Center.
Neither Harrison's parents nor his 18-year-old brother, Frank, matched Harrison's tissue-typing.
Lutz, who was first diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia, spent the day at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem where he is undergoing chemotherapy. "It looks like they're getting him into remission," Lutz's father, Randy, said. Lutz's parents still have a chance to match their son.
Both sets of parents wept as John Harrison thanked the packed-in crowd for coming.
"I hope they find a match soon," Harrison said.