johnkemeny.com

Updates here and here.

Here are Myths and Facts about Bone Marrow Donation thanks to Dan Stack.

Updated May 20 8:10 pm

Letter to Mark Fredrickson from Stacy Morales (friend of Nick):

Subject: Information from hospital meeting

Hi Mark,

An update on the information I learned today at the hospital meeting with Carol Gillespie and Carol Wiegand.

*Nick will most likely start chemotherapy (a slightly different version from the first two rounds) tomorrow. His cell count is slightly better and the doctors are wanting to buy him some more time to find a donor. If not put him into remission, slow down the multiplication of cancer cells.

*Stanford should have Nick in the national database by this weekend to start running the search for a match for a bone marrow transplant

*Once a match is found for Nick, it is usually about 30 days minimum until transplant date due to additional testing and analyzing that is required.

*AADP are expediting testing for potential donors. They are the quickest way to get test results into the national database. Anyone who is going through Be A Match that is not a drive specifically for Nick will have their test results in the system in approximately 4-6 weeks from test date. This is why it is important that if someone is not going to a AADP drive or a specific drive for Nick, they order their kit through AADP. www.aadp.org

I think the most important thing that I came away from the meeting was this: Potentially a match could be someone that has heard our push and been tested. If they went the longest route for test results, that’s 6 weeks from now until they are found to be a match. Add on top of that the 30 day minimum for transplant date. We’re looking at 2 1/2 months. God willing Nick has that. The message we need to push is do not wait, get tested NOW….At a drive for Nick (being held in Bay Area, at EMC World in Orlando, and at EMC HQ in Massachusetts) or through an AADP kit.

A side hopeful tidbit I learned is that a match could potentially be found from someone of a different race. Carole Gillespie said it is rare but she spoke of two cases she’s seen where someone of a completely opposite race was a perfect 10 for 10 match. It’s a shot in the dark, but you never know!

Thanks again for all that you are doing!

Stacy

Takeaway (from Dave Farmer):

Please go to http://www.AADP.org to register online and order a free test kit to be mailed to you. Kits ordered through AADP.org (not the ones ordered through marrow.org) are being expedited specifically for Nick. Free kits are available for mixed races or minorities. At the top of the page, click “Register” and select “Request a Test Kit.”

Do it today!

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock these past couple of days, you’ve seen publicity re: Nick Glasgow’s urgent need for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant. The difficulty is that Nick is part Sino-Asian (specifically 1/4 Japanese) and part Caucasian, which makes finding a match difficult. However, testing for a match is a simple cheek swab.

Mark Fredrickson’s blog has all the details.  Phillip A. Harris’s blog has up to date information on the search, including important donor links: www.marrow.org, www.aadp.org, www.asianmarrow.org, and www.aabmf.org.

Twitter has been all-a-twitter’ng about Nick, including my close personal friend (don’t sue me!) Phil Plait (hint to @donttrythis, @grantimahara, @pennjillette, @GStephanopoulos and all celebrities: we need more celeb re-tweets); and thanks to @storageanarchy there has been broad tweetsupport from IBM, SAP, HP, NTAP, HDS, … .

Facebook has at least 2 groups, the main group and one I started, for which I even paid a very modest amount of money to advertise.

Then there is the free publicity this website got when CBS-TV Channel 5 in San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose ran a story (video) on Nick, and showed this website as an example, highlighting johnkemeny.com! The great thing about that is it made my unaware cousin Peter, who lives in SF (and Paris and the World), fall off his chair when he saw it!!

Update: SF Examiner Story, Digg this, and ‘UP’ this.

This post is way out of the ordiinary. Right now (and time is of the essence) you could help save a life. Read on …

Appropriately wearing a Sombrero (Galaxy), Audrey Hepburn would be 80 yesterday, the day before the Cinco de Mayo. Lia and Alan celebrate with her.