Bone-Marrow Recipient Hopes Others Will Have Chances Like Hers

Anissa Ayala-Espinosa says her recovery from leukemia is a miracle. Now she is working in Orange County to bring the gift of life to others.

Ayala-Espinosa, 25, made international news six years ago when she received a bone-marrow donation from her 14-month-old sister. The baby had been conceived by her parents, Abe and Mary Ayala of Walnut, in the hope that the infant could be a bone-marrow match for her older sister.

“There’s a one in four chance that a sibling will match,” Ayala-Espinosa said. In her case that happened, she received the transplant and has been cancer-free for six years.

She now works to recruit bone-marrow donors for other leukemia patients.

“I’ve been employed by the American Red Cross for the past two years,” she said. “I work out of its Costa Mesa office, and I like working in Orange County.”

At 11 a.m. today, she will speak at Cypress College’s Library Lecture Hall to explain bone-marrow transplants and encourage potential donors. The college is hosting a marrow-donor registration and blood drive on April 16 in the Student Center Gym II from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“I explain what I’ve gone through personally and how each one can help someone who is in need like that,” she said. “I also try to educate people on how the donor program works.”

People who volunteer to be bone-marrow donors do not give marrow when they sign up, Ayala-Espinosa emphasized. Instead, a sample of blood is taken from the potential donor, and the blood type is then logged into a national computer that makes matches.

“Chances of a match range from one in 100 to one in a million,” she said. If a match is made, the donor undergoes a hospital procedure. Marrow is extracted from the donor’s hip bone. “The donors are usually sore and stiff for a few days, but in return they’re saving someone’s life,” she said.

A TV movie was made about Ayala-Espinosa’s bone-marrow transplant. She said she will be eternally grateful for the donation by her baby sister, Marissa Eve Ayala, who is now 7.

“I definitely think it was a miracle that I got the bone-marrow transplant I needed,” she said. “The Lord really blessed me, and I think he left me here for a purpose, and that purpose is to help other families going through this.”

But siblings and other family members often do not match for marrow donations. “There is a 70% chance that people have to go outside their families to find a match,” she said--and that is when the kindness of strangers saves lives.

The donor registration and blood drive at Cypress College is open to the public. Information: (714) 826-2220, Ext. 198.