CAMARILLO : Bone Marrow Donors Sought to Save Lives

Jim Mastro can’t shake your hand.

The 19-year-old Camarillo man’s immune system is still weak because of a bone marrow transplant he underwent in June. As a result, Mastro’s interactions with strangers--and the germs they may harbor--are limited.

When Mastro sees a movie, it’s at the drive-in. Restaurants are risky. His social circle is limited, by doctor’s orders, to his family, his girlfriend and five other friends.

But Jim Mastro considers himself a lucky man, and his mother, Cindy, declared her son’s story “a miracle.” The bone marrow transplant, which has so far been successful, may have saved Mastro’s life, curing his leukemia.

“He was very fortunate,” said Lynnette Chandler, regional coordinator for the National Marrow Donor Program. Mastro survived a December crash that totaled his new truck, with only minor injuries. While treating him, doctors discovered that Mastro had a high white blood-cell count, indicating leukemia.

The early discovery of the disease in Mastro’s blood gave him and his family a head start on looking for a marrow donor. This is where Mastro really lucked out, finding a match in the nationwide computerized registry who was willing to help. His search only took four months. Chandler’s daughter, now 14, looked for a suitable donor for seven years before medication she was taking made her ineligible for the operation.

The Mastros scheduled an auction in April to raise money to test possible donors for Jim Mastro, but the nearly $13,000 they raised will now help pay for the $45 per person it takes to draw and analyze blood samples from new prospective donors.

The Ventura County Chapter of the National Marrow Donor Program will hold a free concert and marrow donor registration from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Freedom Park in Camarillo. Volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 can take a simple blood test and have their names added to the 1.3 million people already on the national registry.

Chandler said there are at least 70 people in Ventura County who still need transplants.

Cindy Mastro said she plans to volunteer all day at the registration, and Jim Mastro’s girlfriend, Ginger Gibbs, said she plans to have her blood tested at the event.

As for Jim Mastro, he is busy recuperating, but he said he wants people to know that “you can just extract a little bit of this fluid from your hip and save someone’s life.”

When he recovers fully, he hopes to return to college and perhaps serve as a counselor at a camp for children with cancer.

He said he is also looking forward to meeting the anonymous donor who saved his life.