For those of you who missed this, I posted a couple weeks ago about my dear friend Jennifer.

From her blog, this is what happened:

Over this past weekend on July 8th, Jennifer was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a Leukemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells. Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell that the body uses to fight infections. In ALL, the bone marrow makes lots of unformed cells called blasts that normally would develop into lymphocytes. However, the blasts are abnormal. They do not develop and cannot fight infections. The number of abnormal cells (or leukemia cells) grows quickly. They crowd out the normal red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets the body needs.

I got to see Jennifer for a few hours on Saturday night. It was wonderful. We laughed, cried, and laughed some more. Her beautiful hair is all gone now, but she is more radiant than ever. I can’t believe how absolutely stunning she was! I got this image off her blog, isn’t she beautiful!

In the very near future, Jennifer needs a bone marrow transplant. She actually has a twin sister and two other siblings, and can you believe that all three were a match for each other but not for Jen? It’s unreal. Her sister Judy works at Fred Hutchinson where they search for DNA matches, another unreal thing, that her sister’s job is right in the midst of this search! She was telling me that Jennifer’s DNA is particularly tied to her ethnicity. Jen is half Mexican and half Korean and there is a trace of African American showing up in her.

Brian and I talked it over this weekend and decided to sign me up at www.marrow.org to see if I might be a match for her or someone else. Judy said the need for minority donors is so huge. My mom has Spanish in her and as you know my dad is Korean. I know it’s like finding a needle in a haystack, but we have to try and see if it’s possible. Brian and I are praying it is, if not me someone else very soon!

If you or someone you know has a similar ethnicity, I invite you to consider signing up at www.marrow.org and joining the register list. It’s a huge thing to ask, so please pray and think about it. There is a lot of good info on the website for what happens when you are a bone marrow donor.

But most of all, thank you for praying for Jen. She is doing incredibly well with what she’s facing. When I posted the blog on Jennifer a couple weeks ago, people emailed her from all over the world. You have no idea how much that meant to her. Keep the emails coming. And thanks for considering being a donor.

To email Jennifer, send to kate_stinson@hotmail.com.

To view her blog, visit Jennifer.

Tomorrow we are going to update you with what’s happening on the workshops and spaces left. We’re so excited to meet so many of you! And you’re coming from all over the country! It’s so fun! Brian and I have also committed 10% of the workshop proceeds to Jennifer’s recovery and needs. We wanted you to know that you are a part of something bigger than you realize!

Much love, Me Ra