The Asian American Donor Program is holding a bone marrow drive in San Francisco tonight to encourage residents to become potential donors, with the added goal of saving the life of a 29-year-old Bay Area man.
Tonight’s drive is the third in a series aimed at getting more donors to join the national registry.
Medical patients who are not Caucasian are more likely to die of leukemia and other blood cancers because of a shortage of donors of other ethnicities, according to the Asian American Donor Program.
For 29-year-old Ryan Manansala (photo above, center), tonight’s bone marrow drive could be life-saving.
Manansala, who is Filipino, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia on Jan. 31, 2012. He was unable to find a matching donor, and received a cord blood transplant in the summer of 2012, bone marrow drive organizers said.
However, Manansala relapsed and urgently needs a marrow donor this time, according to the donor program. None of his immediate family members is a marrow match.
The bone marrow drive will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at the HackCancer symposium at 1650 Owens St. in San Francisco.
