Local volunteer in need of a marrow donor

Madhuri Mistry
Citizen Correspondent

Matthew Nguyen was a dedicated volunteer recruiting potential marrow donors to help save lives of others; now he needs a donor to save his own life!

There are only 16,000 potential donors of Vietnamese origin in the national registry. Because tissue types are inherited, a patient’s most likely match is someone of the same heritage. Often it is said that finding a match is one in a million chance so, with the help from his family, friends and the community Mathew wants to launch a massive effort to not only save his own life but of many others like him.

Matthew attended UCLA and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Psychology /Biology. After working for 2 years as an analytical chemist he was accepted to a pharmacy school. He attended the University Of Appalachia College Of Pharmacy in Virginia for only a year and was diagnosed with leukemia. For the next 16 months, he underwent five rounds of chemotherapy. For each round, he was hospitalized for at least 30 days. During this time if something could go wrong it did with Matthew… he suffered numerous infections and almost every organ in his body was affected – lungs, liver, pancreas, stomach. And now the leukemia is back with vengeance.

He was planning to return to school in April 09 to continue his studies. Now that the leukemia is back, he has to postpone his plans. He had also planned to get married this May to Chloe Nguyen, his fiancée, however the wedding is on hold too. But Matthew is not giving up! He hopes that some day he would be able to finish his pharmacy school, get married to the love of his life, have a family, travel and see more of the world. He says, “I want to be able to provide and take care of my family so that they don’t have to take care of me like they are doing now. I want to live my life and show the world what I can do”.

Here is the list of donor recruitment drives in the area:

Sunday 3/29/09 from 9 AM to 1 PM at My Thuan Market, Corner of Magnolia & Westminster, Westminster, CA

Sunday 3/29/09 from 1 PM to 6 PM at Valley High School, S. Greenville St, Santa Ana, CA

Wednesday 4/1/09 from 11am to 5pm at ABC market corner of Bolsa and Magnolia in the city of Westminster, CA

Tuesday 4/7/09, Wednesday 4/8/09, and Thursday 4/9/09 from 10 am to 4pm at UCLA, Bruins Walk

For more information please visit our website at: www.AsianMarrow.org

Contact: Ted Nguyen

Phone: (888) 236 4673, Ext: 106