FULLERTON : Possible Donors of Bone Marrow Sought

The American Red Cross is marking National Bone Marrow Donor Awareness Week by asking residents to be tested as possible donors.

A bone marrow drive will take place Sept. 15 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the Hewlett Packard building, 1421 S. Manhattan St. in Fullerton. A second drive will take place Sept. 14 at Ingram Micro, 1600 E. St. Andrews Place in Santa Ana.

About 60,000 local residents have been tested and placed on a national donor registry. About 1.3 million people nationwide are on the list, and more than 2,600 marrow transplants have taken place in the United States so far this year. Twenty-nine local residents donated marrow in 1993.

Red Cross officials said that patients generally have the best chance of benefiting from marrow donated by family members. But when family marrow is not available, doctor can often use marrow from unrelated donors.

The Red Cross is especially eager in finding donors from minority groups such as African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. Only 18% of the donors on the national registry are nonwhite.

Donors must be between ages of 18 and 55 and be in good health.

For more information, call (800) MARROW2 or the Red Cross Marrow Donor Program at (213) 739-4594.