Secret Donor Gives Hispanic Woman Gift of Life
Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic
AZ Central.com, AZ
_______________
Tucson, AZ (United States):
A mystery woman is giving Guadalupe "Lupe" Saavedra a second shot at life, defying the odds of finding a bone marrow donor for the Scottsdale leukemia patient.
Saavedra was whisked to the University Medical Center in Tucson on Tuesday, one day after receiving a phone call saying her one-in-50,000 chance had come through. A match was found.
She's preparing for the Oct. 20 transplant with 10 days of high-dose chemotherapy that will kill her bone marrow and any cancer cells.
The 41-year-old also is preparing for death, praying with her pink and white rosary, arranging for anointment and setting up confession with a priest.
"It takes a lot of accepting," she said in a telephone interview. "You go through denial. Then you're scared. Then you're finally OK with the whole thing. I just figure I'm not going to go yet."
Saavedra has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of a certain type of blood cell, and has been searching since March for a match. Family members didn't match her tissue type, so her next best chance was finding a Hispanic donor. Her odds were slim because few Hispanics register.
Her plight created an unprecedented response locally when family members helped organize the Valley's first focused effort to register Hispanics in hopes of finding a match. Since June, at least 800 Hispanics have lined up at Food City grocers, Catholic churches, city halls and shopping malls to register as donors for Saavedra and leukemia patient Bridgett Contreras, 9.
Saavedra's match could have come from anywhere, said an official with the National Bone Marrow Program, which connects donors and recipients. The organization does not release donor identification.
The donor will take medicine to cause her stem cells to circulate in the blood. Those stem cells will be collected from the donor's blood stream and given to Saavedra through a process similar to a blood transfusion. The cells find their way to Saavedra's bone marrow and replace it with the donors'.
Oct. 14, 2005
Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic
AZ Central.com, AZ
_______________
Tucson, AZ (United States):
A mystery woman is giving Guadalupe "Lupe" Saavedra a second shot at life, defying the odds of finding a bone marrow donor for the Scottsdale leukemia patient.
Saavedra was whisked to the University Medical Center in Tucson on Tuesday, one day after receiving a phone call saying her one-in-50,000 chance had come through. A match was found.
She's preparing for the Oct. 20 transplant with 10 days of high-dose chemotherapy that will kill her bone marrow and any cancer cells.
The 41-year-old also is preparing for death, praying with her pink and white rosary, arranging for anointment and setting up confession with a priest.
"It takes a lot of accepting," she said in a telephone interview. "You go through denial. Then you're scared. Then you're finally OK with the whole thing. I just figure I'm not going to go yet."
Saavedra has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of a certain type of blood cell, and has been searching since March for a match. Family members didn't match her tissue type, so her next best chance was finding a Hispanic donor. Her odds were slim because few Hispanics register.
Her plight created an unprecedented response locally when family members helped organize the Valley's first focused effort to register Hispanics in hopes of finding a match. Since June, at least 800 Hispanics have lined up at Food City grocers, Catholic churches, city halls and shopping malls to register as donors for Saavedra and leukemia patient Bridgett Contreras, 9.
Saavedra's match could have come from anywhere, said an official with the National Bone Marrow Program, which connects donors and recipients. The organization does not release donor identification.
The donor will take medicine to cause her stem cells to circulate in the blood. Those stem cells will be collected from the donor's blood stream and given to Saavedra through a process similar to a blood transfusion. The cells find their way to Saavedra's bone marrow and replace it with the donors'.
Oct. 14, 2005
