Blood Drive Seeks to Locate Marrow Donor

Adrive in search of bone-marrow donors is planned for a 15-year-old girl who fought off ovarian cancer only to be confronted with leukemia.

Taylor McGreevy, an athletically inclined sophomore at Point Loma High School, plans to attend medical school after she graduates from college.

But attempts to secure that future by finding a suitable marrow donor through the national blood bank have been unsuccessful, said Lynn Stedd of the San Diego Blood Bank.

Taylor’s family and the blood bank are holding a drive to collect blood types at 10 a.m. Jan. 18.

“At least 500 volunteers are needed to attend the drive and have two tablespoons of their blood tested,” Stedd said.

The McGreevy family has raised more than $7,500 to have 100 people tested for blood type and hopes to have 500 tested altogether. Those tested will have their names on the National Marrow Donor Program computer list for anyone in the nation who needs a bone-marrow transplant.

The McGreevy family has a loan through the Bone Marrow Foundation, a private organization, to help test the first 500 donors. In addition, the money raised by the family will be matched by a grant from the donor program up to $12,500.

“The McGreevy’s are also asking for donations of $75 from those who are able to give it,” Stedd said.

The blood drive hopes to attract healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 55. Anyone who is in ill health or who suffers from heart disease, asthma or respiratory problems should not donate, Stedd said.

Taylor McGreevy’s battle began in September, 1990, when she underwent surgery for ovarian cancer. After a series of radiation treatments she seemed to have recovered, but several months after her last treatments she began suffering from high fevers and rashes.

“They said it was evolving leukemia, which might be the result of ovarian cancer, but they don’t know for sure,” McGreevy said from her bed at the Children’s Hospital. “Basically, it means my bone marrow is producing too many white blood cells and not enough red cells and platelet cells.”

Taylor’s doctor, Dr. Wayne E. Spruce, said the teen-ager suffers from an abnormality in her bone marrow that probably is genetic.

Stedd said the procedure for transferring the bone marrow takes no more than an hour, and the donor would feel no pain during the procedure, which involves removal of the bone marrow from both sides of the pelvis while under anesthesia.

“The person would maybe miss three days at the most from work,” Stedd said. “And the pain is said to be very light, like falling on ice.”

Moreover, she added, “the feeling they would get knowing they have saved someone’s life is indescribable.”

The drive will be held at Point Loma High School, 2335 Chatsworth Blvd., San Diego.