| > Home > University
Advancement > Newsroom
- 2007 Press Releases > DH 07 JH020
Newsroom
Archive | Experts Online
February 14 , 2007
DH 07 JH20
Contact: Joanie Harmon-Whetmore
(310) 243-2740/2001
Campaign Continues to Find a Bone Marrow Donor for CSU Dominguez Hills Alum
Carson, CA - In the continuing efforts for
alum Jerome Williams (Class of ’91, B.S.,Business Administration/Computer Information Systems) to find a bone marrow donor, a
Website, teamjerome.org has been posted in cooperation with the City of Hope. Williams, is in
the accelerated stages of leukemia, has been told by doctors that they are not sure how much longer
he will live without a bone marrow transplant.
“I‘m African American, French and Native American,” Williams said in an interview last year. “I went
through my family members and no one was a match. I went to the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
and no one has been a match so far. Due to my unique racial heritage, someone of Caribbean or a black
and Hispanic mix would most likely be a marrow match for me."
A PSA on the Website informs viewers of the need for minorities to register to be marrow donors, by way of a
simple saliva test kit from that can be requested from the City of Hope after meeting basic medical guidelines.
Potential donors are registered upon sending their sample back.
Williams is as concerned with making sure that others in his situation do not have to hope in vain for
a willing marrow donor as he is in saving his own life.
"I'm in the battle of my life, and I'm not giving up," says the father of two young children. "Our next goal is to reach
Oprah Winfrey, so that we can tell her audience about the critical need for minorities to become marrow donors."
Williams has contributed his story to Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors by Dr. Karin Stanford (Lancaster: Gazelle Book Services, Ltd., 2005).
“Dr. Stanford is trying to dispel the myth that black people don’t get cancer,” notes Williams. “When the
doctor told me, I was shocked. I told the doctor that diabetes runs in my family, not cancer. I later found
out that cancer does run in my family, my grandfather died of it two years ago, and his siblings also died
of cancer.”
The former Los Angeles Fire Department employee was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in
February 2003 after visiting the doctor for what he thought was acid reflux disease; an enlarged spleen
due to the leukemia had pushed his stomach out of place, causing discomfort. Since then, he has spearheaded
several bone marrow drives, two of which have taken place on the CSUDH campus, to find a cure for others
and himself.
To view the City of Hope PSA, click here.
Dominguez Hills - University Communications & Public Affairs
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747
|
