GLENDALE : Bone Marrow Donor Sought for Little Girl

The American Red Cross will conduct bone marrow donor testing at a Glendale church today in hopes of finding someone who can help save the life of a 5-year-old Iranian American girl from Northern California.

Mana Khorashadi, who lives with her parents in Davis, is critically ill with aplastic anemia, a form of leukemia. The girl has no relatives with a matching marrow type and Red Cross officials have been searching for a donor for more than a year, conducting tests in several locations across the state, said Teri Pritchett, a director of the Red Cross marrow donor program.

Pritchett said the Red Cross is appealing to people of Iranian descent because the likelihood of finding a match is greater within Mana’s ethnic group.

“Bone marrow type is inherited, much in the way hair and skin color are--the information is passed down genetically,” said Pritchett. Still, she said only about 30% of bone marrow patients are able to find a donor within their own family, so Mana’s situation is not unusual.

The testing is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Grandview Presbyterian Church gym, 1130 Ruberta Avenue in Glendale. Those interested in donating marrow will be tested and registered, so that if they do not match Mana’s type they may help another patient.

Potential donors are asked to pay a $22.50 testing fee, but money has been raised to waive the fee for those who cannot afford it, Pritchett said.

For more information, call (800) 627-7692.