Family Turns to Neighbors for Bone Marrow Donor

Jim Mastro woke in a daze after crashing his brand-new truck last December and heard a doctor’s warning.

The deep cuts around his elbow would heal, the doctor told him, but he should have someone check his blood. His white blood count was six to 10 times higher than normal.

That is how the 18-year-old Camarillo man found out he had leukemia.

Now his only hope for a cure lies in a bone marrow transplant. But first he must find a donor whose marrow is compatible with the complex genetic patterns of his. His three younger brothers don’t match, and neither do his parents.

So the Mastros are turning to the community, trying to raise money and test as many residents as they can.

“The doctor told me if I tested everyone in Ventura County, we probably wouldn’t find a match for him,” admits his mother, Cindy. “But we might find one for somebody else. I just wanted to move ahead and do the positive thing.”

With an art-auction fund-raiser set for April 23, the Mastros join a network of families across the country who are building a national registry of bone marrow donors.

Started in 1987, the National Bone Marrow Program now has more than 1 million names and blood tests on file. Even so, thousands of families nationwide, and more than 100 in Ventura County, are still looking for a match, said Lynnette Chandler, who started a local chapter six years ago.

Jim Mastro initially found three potential matches in the registry, but two have been ruled out. Even if the third donor matches all six of the antigens in Mastro’s marrow, the individual could decline to donate.

For now, chemotherapy has brought Mastro’s white blood count back to normal levels, down from 67,000 to about 6,700. “I don’t want people to call me sick, because I’m not sick,” Mastro said. “It’s just something in my blood.”

His wet suit still hangs in the garage, ready whenever he wants to surf. He dropped out of Ventura College after the diagnosis but has taken a job at a Jiffy Lube and plays in an adult softball league with his father.

He is planning to take his girlfriend, Ginger, to her senior prom at Camarillo High School next month and to the Eagles concert the next day.

Yet Mastro doesn’t know how long the chemotherapy will stave off the effects of leukemia. And the treatment, in time, could weaken his organs, making his full recovery much more difficult.

After all, finding a marrow donor is just the first hurdle. What follows is a complex and expensive process in which doctors poison Mastro’s diseased marrow, essentially killing his immune system. They then inject him with healthy marrow and keep him in isolation for two to four months.

Altogether the process can cost $150,000 to $300,000, depending on the hospital. After that, the leukemia could still return within weeks.

Cindy Mastro said she is not as concerned about paying for the treatment; insurance will cover most of the costs. And she is confident that her son is healthy enough to survive the transplant process.

But first they have to find a match. A simple blood test can provide the needed data but the analysis required costs $45. Many potential donors do not want to pay that much. The art auction would raise money so local residents could be tested for free.

Steve and Cindy Mastros, who were raised in Camarillo, hope to tap a range of friends and associates for the fund-raiser and the bone marrow registration drive. The couple graduated from Camarillo High School, as did Jim. Their other son, Jason, is a football star there.

Cindy said she has already received a basket of checks and donations for the fund-raiser from nearly 30 businesses in the area.

Chandler, who heads the local chapter of the bone marrow program, said new donors typically know someone who needs a transplant. Chandler got involved when her daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of anemia. She estimates the chapter has registered more than 17,000 Ventura County residents.

Chandler knows the frustration of the quest. “I’ve been searching for over six years and still haven’t found a match for my daughter,” she said.

FYI

The art auction benefiting Jim Mastro and others in need of bone marrow transplants is set for Saturday, April 23, at the Camarillo Community Center, 1605 Burnley St. The artwork will be on view at 7 p.m., with the auction starting at 8. Items for sale will include works by Marc Chagall and Eugene Delacroix.