Searching for a match

After watching his sister-in-law undergo five rounds of chemotherapy

in an unsuccessful effort to combat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Ed Vega

wanted to do his part to help.

He and Brent Newby, co-workers at McCarthy Building Companies in

Newport Beach, decided to call upon fellow employees to participate

in a blood and bone marrow drive at their office.

More than 75 McCarthy employees and their relatives participated

in the daylong event Tuesday. The blood drive was coordinated through

the American Red Cross and the bone marrow testing through the

National Marrow Donor Program.

McCarthy is also signing up people at many of its job sites to

take part in future bone marrow drives across Orange County.

“It’s a numbers game at this point,” said Newby, a preconstruction

director with the firm. “You only need one match to save a person’s

life. We are trying to increase the odds.”

Newby’s longtime friend, Drew Spaeth, is in immediate need of a

bone marrow transplant. He has multiple myeloma, a cancer of the

blood. No one on the national registry list is a match.

That lack of matches motivated Newby to contact company executives

about holding the first blood and marrow drive at the company’s

offices.

On Tuesday, Newby donated to both causes. Vega walked the halls

with a T-shirt honoring his sister-in-law, Lisa Vega, who is battling

40 separate tumors that are putting pressure on her nerves and

organs.

Lisa Vega continues her stay in an Orange County hospital, where

she is undergoing another round of chemotherapy and hoping to find a

bone marrow match.

Matches are hard to find, Ed Vega said, because his sister-in-law

is part Native American, part Latina, and most matches come from

people of similar ethnic backgrounds.

“It’s been challenging,” Ed Vega said. “One of the things that

keeps us going is Lisa’s spirit.”

Many of the McCarthy employees were inspired by the stories of

Spaeth and Lisa Vega, said company senior vice president Dennis

Katovsich.

“There’s a need for matches,” said Katovsich, who participated in

the blood drive. “Both Ed and Brent have identified a cause that hits

close to home for the McCarthy family.”

For the marrow drive, it takes eight to 10 weeks to process blood

samples in order to conduct tissue typing -- the process that

determines matches.

If a person is a match, he or she goes through a minor surgical

procedure in which small amounts of marrow are removed from the

pelvis.

Vicky Corona, a recruitment specialist for the National Marrow

Donor Program, said 5.5 million people are registered marrow donors,

and 3,000 people are identified by doctors as high-risk patients in

need of a transplant.

Only 20,000 transplants have taken place over the last 18 years,

because for a match to occur, six out of six markers need to align,

Corona said.

She said about 30% of matches are siblings and other family

members.

Ed Vega said he remains optimistic about finding a match. He has

helped organize 12 other drives for his sister-in-law around Orange

County. Events in Orange and Temecula are taking place in the coming

month.

“This is basically the last remedy,” Corona said. “It’s a very

important thing.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

[email protected].