ANAHEIM : President Cheers Leukemia Victim

Christina Schnabl used to think President Bush was boring.

But that opinion changed when the second-grader, recently diagnosed with leukemia, received a personal note from Bush hailing her upcoming ninth birthday on April 12.

Christina hasn’t seen her Anaheim home since a Jan. 26 doctor’s visit, when a blood test revealed the leukemia. She was immediately admitted to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana for chemotherapy treatments, said her father, Jerry Schnabl.

In a letter dated March 16, Bush praised Christina for her strength.

“The courage you have shown throughout this difficult time is an inspiration to all who know you,” Bush wrote.

Christina’s aunt, Carol Massa of San Diego, elicited the letter from Bush by sending a written request to the White House for a birthday greeting.

“I saw on the news how President Bush gets requests (to acknowledge) people’s anniversaries and things like that,” Massa said. “So I sat down and wrote him and told him all about Christina . . . what a neat little girl she is and her plight to be matched with a bone marrow donor.

“It came at the perfect time because she was really having a bad day. She is a tough little girl, but that day she was sick of the IVs (intravenous tubes), sick of being poked with needles, and she wanted her hair back.”

The letter gave Christina a new impression of Bush.

“He’s not boring any more,” declared the soft-spoken blonde from her hospital bed.

Both Massa and Christina’s father were surprised that Bush wrote a personal note. Massa said she had expected to see a preprinted card with Bush’s signature.

“When I thought about the President taking the time to sit down and write a letter to an 8-year-old girl, I really got choked up,” Schnabl said. “It was just overwhelming.”

Equally overwhelming, he said, has been the outpouring of support from the Cal State Fullerton athletic department and Placentia community groups, which are assisting with the family’s desperate search for a bone marrow donor. Christina attended Wagner Elementary School in Placentia.

A bone marrow transplant would give Christina a 70% chance of remission, Massa said, but the odds of finding a proper donor are 1 in 20,000.

Candidates are screened by a simple blood test that is analyzed for tissue compatibility. The results are entered into a national computer list for possible matches with victims of leukemia, lymphoma, and Hodgkin’s disease, according to information from the Life-Savers Foundation, a nonprofit organization that maintains the list.

The Cal State Fullerton women’s softball team is sponsoring a donor drive by conducting blood tests April 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., said organizer Jill Matyuch. Several athletes at the university have been raising money to offset the cost of the blood tests, which run $75 each, she said. The drive will be at the school gymnasium.

Donations to underwrite the costs of the blood tests are being accepted at Wagner Elementary School, 717 Yorba Linda Blvd., Placentia, Calif. 92670.