MDS Patient Krissy Kobata in Glamour Magazine Article

[Marrowforums]

Patients and family members who attended previous Hope, Steps & A Cure fundraising walks may remember Krissy Kobata and her team of supporters.

Krissy has been looking for a matched bone marrow donor since she was diagnosed with MDS in 2008. Unfortunately, Japanese-Caucasian and other people of mixed Asian and Caucasian ancestry are underrepresented in the national bone marrow registry. She has no match among the 9.5 million people in the registry, only 3% of which are of mixed race.

Krissy has been a relentless recruiter for the bone marrow registry, organizing drives that have added thousands of volunteers to the ranks. This has the potential to find her a match but has also improved the chances for countless other patients who are searching for donors, including a few matches known to have been made as a result of her bone marrow registry drives. Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M) makes similar efforts to recruit donors among the Asian community.

This month, in the January 2012 issue of Glamour Magazine, a 4-page article features Krissy's story and a pitch for Glamour readers to sign up for the bone marrow registry. Most Glamour readers are American women so based on the percentage of Asian-Caucasians among American women they estimate that 37,200 Glamour readers have ancestry that makes them potential matches for Krissy. The publicity from this article should further spread the message that more donors are needed, especially among the minority and mixed-race communities. Congratulations, thank you, and good luck to Krissy!

[Neil Cuadra]

Krissy Kobata is receiving a haplo transplant from her brother today, after completing her conditioning.

We wish her the best of luck and a speedy and full recovery.

[Neil Cuadra]

Krissy Kobata reports that she's home and that her recovery is going well.