Racing for Lifesavers, Cancer Center Seeks Marrow Donors in Crowd

No one has to explain the odds of finding a lifesaving bone-marrow match to Jess Ruyg. He was tested when his sister was diagnosed with leukemia. He didn’t match. Neither did any of the 3 million people in the national marrow donor registry.

Ruyg’s sister died five years ago.

“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through,” said the 51-year old Hesperia resident.

So Ruyg did not hesitate Saturday when he heard the loudspeaker announcement calling for potential donors from his seat in the grandstand at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Facility.

What started out as a day at the races--checking out the sports cars and go-carts and racing paraphernalia at the Motor Trend Thunder Historic Road Races--became a chance for Ruyg to do something he couldn’t do for his sister. Save a life.

To some, the City of Hope Cancer Center tent may have seemed out of place. Wedged between a $3 carnival ride and 1956 Chevy Nomad that was being raffled for charity, the tent was full of volunteers eager to answer questions and draw blood.

The event was organized in part to help Colleen Jilio, a North Tustin mother of three who is battling lymphoma.

“We get people at big events like this,” said Charif El Masri who heads the City of Hope’s national marrow donor program. “Not only do we get donors to join, but it is a chance to get information out about the donor program.”

About 100 people joined the donor program on Saturday. Organizers wanted to add 1,000 new names this weekend and Masri said they hope the turnout today is better.

For some who are diagnosed with leukemia and other life-threatening blood illnesses, a marrow transplant is the only hope. But finding suitable donors can be difficult to nearly impossible.

Only 30% of patients have a family member who matches. For whites, the odds of finding a nonrelated donor are good, about 80%. But only 5% of nonwhites find a nonrelated donor.

The odds are even lower for people from mixed ethnic backgrounds. Baseball legend Rod Carew’s daughter Michelle, whose mother is Jewish and father is black and West Indian, called attention to this problem during her seven-month battle with leukemia that she lost in 1996.

“We have a lot of patients who are dying,” said Masri, adding that about 3,000 patients are waiting for a match at any given time. “There are people walking around right now that could be matches but don’t want to go to the inconvenience of being tested.”

If a perfect match is found, a donor will have a small percentage of their marrow drawn through a needle from their hip, Masri said. Most donors, he said, require only an overnight hospital stay, and some are able to leave the hospital the same day.

Kevin Mullane of Rancho Cucamonga is one of the lucky ones. Diagnosed with leukemia in January 1997, two of Mullane’s siblings were perfect matches. But the memory of waiting to hear the test results keeps him active in building the national registry, he said.

“I was doing the math in my head even while we were waiting,” he said. “It was so, so hard.”

Under the tent’s shade, John McKay of Covina said he never expected to be giving a blood sample Saturday. But it seemed the right thing to do, he said. A big man with a sandy colored beard and wraparound sunglasses, McKay said he heard the call for volunteers while he was working in the pits for a friend who was racing.

“They were here. I was here. My wife and I have been talking about doing it for a while, and it just seemed like the time,” he said.

As he clenched a piece of foam in his fist, a volunteer drew two vials of blood. McKay didn’t flinch. He was eager to know how soon his blood would be tested for a possible match. Monday, he was told.

For Colleen Jilio, each donor who signs up represents her hope for a cure.

“The only chance now is that I have a bone marrow transplant, and we are looking for donors,” she said. “So far we don’t have any matches. We keep on checking and keep on praying and you never know.”

The City of Hope Cancer Center will be testing today at Motor Trend Historic Races. Admission is $20.