Donor Drive Organizer Dies of Leukemia : Samaritan: Katalina Um, 22, of Ventura sought to enroll more minorities in the national bone marrow program.

Katalina Um, a good Samaritan who fed Ventura’s homeless and recently launched a drive to increase minority enrollment in a national registry of potential bone marrow donors, has died of leukemia. She was 22.

In October, the Ventura woman had been euphoric because a suitable match for her bone marrow had been identified through the National Marrow Donor Program. At that time, she was involved in an energetic campaign to enroll more minorities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in the National Marrow Donor Program.

But Um never got the chance to receive the bone marrow transplant that doctors said would have given her the best shot at regaining health.

Doctors sent her home Nov. 6 when it became clear that grueling rounds of chemotherapy would not halt her particularly aggressive form of leukemia, said her boyfriend, Tony Litoff. Without remission, doctors told her, there was no chance for the transplant to work.

After struggling seven days, Um died Sunday in the Ventura home she shared with Litoff.

Litoff and two other friends are planning to continue Um’s work toward increasing awareness of and enrollment in the National Marrow Donor Program. The committee will meet this week to decide what methods the organization will use to reach blacks, Latinos and Asians, said Anita Young, who befriended Um after reading about her plight.

“I know that this was something that was very dear to her,” Young said. “She wanted to help as many people in the same situation as she could.”

Those who knew Um spoke of her optimism and determination to beat her disease, called acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Even after chemotherapy failed, Um in her final days talked about seeking alternative therapies, Litoff said.

“She said, ‘Western medicine doesn’t have any other answers for me, so I’m going to go home and contact herbal doctors to see if that will work,’ ” Litoff recalled.

Sharon Sugiyama of the Los Angeles-based Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches said the news of Um’s death was a blow to her and her staff. In the past two months, Um and a group of committed friends had worked closely with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches to increase the number of minorities enrolled in the National Marrow Donor Program.

“Those who had worked on the project were so taken by her because she had so much spirit and was so positive. She worked so hard even when she was sick,” Sugiyama said Tuesday.

“And then to have her life ended so soon,” Sugiyama said. “We feel the loss.”

Um, a native of Korea, launched the campaign after learning that minority registration lags far behind the number of Anglos enrolled in the program. Ethnicity is a prime factor in finding matches, but just 4% of the 951,000 potential donors listed in the registry are of Asian descent, Sugiyama said.

Through stories in newspapers and appearances on television, Um encouraged minorities to find out how they could become potential bone marrow donors. Sugiyama said her office was deluged with calls from people wanting to find out where they could be tested after hearing Um’s story.

“Her death just makes us work harder,” Sugiyama said. “Because we know that all patients have a limited time. If we can enlarge that pool, it will give patients a chance of getting a match right away and hopefully in time.”

Young said it is tragic that Um beat odds of at least 10,000-to-1 but never got to use the bone marrow that had been deemed a perfect match. Still, Young said, she hopes Um’s experience will not deter potential donors from being tested.

“I hope that people don’t take (her death) as a sign that this program doesn’t work. For some, it does,” Young said. “And even though it did not turn out the way we had all planned or wanted for Katalina, just knowing that she had a perfect match brightened up her last days.”

Um’s campaign to boost potential donors to the marrow program was not the first time she became involved in a community issue. Just one month before she was diagnosed with leukemia in July, 1992, she began a program to feed the homeless in Ventura County.

Carting boxes of McDonald’s hamburgers and orange drinks, Um’s tall, slim figure could often be seen visiting homeless men and women in encampments near the Ventura River bottom. Um continued her personal mission after learning she had leukemia, Litoff said.

“Most people who met her would have to agree that there is really nobody quite like Kat in the whole world,” he said. “She was so giving.”

Um will be cremated, Litoff said. He is planning a “memorial party” to commemorate her life and good deeds, Litoff said. A date has not yet been set.

“She wouldn’t have wanted a traditional memorial service,” he said. “She would have scolded me for that.”

Anyone interested in attending the celebration can get information by calling 641-0773, he said.