Montgomery Co. mom battling cancer makes plea for more minority bone marrow donors

COLLEGEVILLE, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Every three to four minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer, like leukemia.

For many, their only hope for a cure is a bone marrow transplant.. But finding a match can be difficult, especially for Asian, Black and Latino Americans.

In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of people on the list in need of this life-saving procedure.

Vivian Cheng Larson, 44, is the mom of a very rambunctious 3-year-old named Chase. She's also a full-time health care professional and now a cancer patient after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in January.

"My family didn't believe it. I didn't believe it," she said. "We were essentially planning for life without me possibly in it."

Vivian is currently in chemotherapy.

"I'm really hopeful that this works," she said.

If it doesn't, she'll need a bone marrow transplant.

"It's the kindness of strangers that will help me get through this tough battle," she said.

Seventy percent of patients do not have a fully matched donor in their family. That means they need to turn to something like the NMDP registry, formerly known as Be the Match or the National Marrow Donor Program.

The concern for Vivian is her pool to find a match is significantly lower due to her ethnic background, as donors must have essentially the same genetic makeup as the patient.

"I'm hoping to not only raise awareness, but move people to action," she said.

About half (49%) of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander patients do not have a matching blood stem cell donor on the NMDP Registry. That number rises to 52% for Latino patients and 71% for African American patients.

"Because of the misinformation and mistreatment that has happened for such a long period of time, it's still a long road," said Ronald Francois of NMDP.

And the numbers are even more dire for children of mixed race.

"We still have a lot more work to do, which is very, very important in our outreach and what we do. So we have various partnerships within the community and also with colleges and universities as well," said Francois.

To sign up for the registry you can go online or click Vivian's link on BetheMatch.org. You can also text the code teamvivianpa to 61474

Donors must be between the ages of 18 to 40 and you remain on the registry until you're 61 years old.

"What they will do is it will open up the envelope, swab cheeks on each side put it in a sealed envelope and then mail it in," he explained.

All of your medical and travel expenses are covered if you are chosen as a match.

Putting yourself on the registry can save a life like Vivian's and so many others.

"This is the work I feel compelled to do in order to give people of color, a fighting chance," she said.

Finally, a lot of people don't know this, but 90% of the time, bone marrow donation happens through a needle in one arm and the recovery time is about seven days. About 10% of the time, cells are required to be taken from the back of your pelvic bone through surgery under anesthesia, with a longer recovery time of about 20 days.