Mother organizes bone-marrow, blood drives to save her daughter Mother organizes bone-marrow, blood drives to save her daughter (June 01, 2005)

Christine Marelich, who lives in Menlo Park, is organizing blood drives and bone-marrow drives on behalf of her 14-year-old daughter, Brittany, who was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in February, and is now being treated at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

"We have gone through so many hardships since her diagnosis," says Ms. Marelich.

Brittany's blood type is B negative, which is rare, making it very difficult for her to get blood transfusions.

Also, since she is half African-American and half white, it has been very difficult to find a bone-marrow donor, says Ms. Marelich.

Brittany has gone through 18 chemotherapy treatments and four blood transfusions.

"Right now, a bone-marrow transplant is the only thing that can save her life," says Ms. Marelich. "Only 17 percent of the people in the bone-marrow registry are African-American."

Working in conjunction with nonprofit Blood Centers of the Pacific, Ms. Marelich is organizing blood donation and bone-marrow registry drives at these locations:

** Salvation Army at 1270 Marshall St. in Redwood City on Saturday, June 11. Bloodmobile will be in the parking lot from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

** Redwood Church at 903 Madison Ave. in Redwood City on Sunday, June 19. Bloodmobile will be in the parking lot from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

To schedule an appointment, call Christine at 814-1923. Walkups are welcome.

There will be food and raffle prizes, and a Giants T-shirt will be given to each donor.
INFORMATION

For more information, go to bloodcenters.org. For information on the bone-marrow registries, go to marrow.org or CanDoCoalition.org.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.