Life-threatening blood cancer interrupts the life of 64-year-old Teresa Ramos. She is a loving mother of 9, grandmother of 13 and
great-grandmother of a newborn baby whom she hasn’t yet seen because of her illness. Teresa was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia
(AML) in January and has only one chance at survival. She needs a bone marrow transplant and depends on a complete stranger to make this possible.
To find a perfect bone marrow donor will be extremely difficult. You are more likely to match with
someone of a similar ethnic background and right now Hispanics make up only 10% of the bone marrow
registry. Therefore, DKMS, along with Teresa’s family and friends, is organizing a bone marrow donor drive
in Santa Clarita on October 24th.
"Please help us. My mother is such a caring and giving woman and it breaks my heart to see her confined
to a hospital bed," stated Teresa Perez, Teresa’s daughter. "Because she cannot leave and the baby isn’t
allowed to visit, my mom still hasn't met the newest addition to our family. Hope is the last thing I will lose.
We would do anything to make her healthy again, but we cannot do it without you! Please come to the
DKMS donor drive and register as a bone marrow donor. You could be the life-saving match, not only for
my mother but for any patient in need."
We need you! Every day thousands of patients search the national registry in hope for a bone marrow
donor match. Only 3 out of 10 patients are lucky enough to receive a transplant. "I lost my mother to
leukemia when I was 14," stated Katharina Harf, Co-founder, DKMS Americas, "and I have made it my
mission to recruit more donors so that other families don’t have to go the through the pain we did." "We
need your help so we can save more lives.”
Register as a Bone Marrow Donor
Santa Clarita
Saturday, October 24, 2009
10:00 AM-4:00 PM
Grace Baptist Church
22833 Copper Hill Drive
Registering to become a bone marrow donor is more than a cheek swab; it is a commitment to help save
a life. You must be between 18 and 55 and in good general health. When you register with DKMS, you will
also be listed on the national Be The Match Registry and can be found as a donor match for any patient in need
of a bone marrow transplant.
Every dollar counts! DKMS needs your dollars to finance the $65 registration cost.
About DKMS
The DKMS mission is to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors for leukemia patients. More than
18,000 DKMS donors have helped save lives by donating their bone marrow. DKMS is the largest and most
experienced bone marrow donor center in the world with more than 2 million registered donors. DKMS
Americas is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization.
For more information about DKMS and to learn more about registering as a bone marrow donor, please
visit
www.dkmsamericas.org.
Contact: Alexandra Rothenberg
DKMS
212.209.6734
alexandra@dkmsamericas.org
