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Pizarro: Campbell wedding consultant goes all out for ailing cousin
By Sal Pizarro
Mercury News
Posted: 04/07/2009 04:06:31 PM PDT
Updated: 04/07/2009 08:46:47 PM PDT
Stacie Tamaki has made a career helping other people as a wedding consultant in Campbell. But now she needs other people to lend a hand — and it's a much bigger deal than a wedding.
Tamaki's 44-year-old cousin, Tami, was diagnosed in February with a form of blood cancer called myelodysplasia, and her best shot at a cure is getting a stem cell/blood marrow transplant.
The most likely match would come from donors who are of Japanese descent like Tami. Unfortunately, Tamaki shared with me, only 0.4 percent of the 7.5 million people in the National Marrow Donor Program Registry are from that ethnic group.
To help get people registered, Tamaki has organized a donor registry drive from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. A federal grant allows people of minority ethnicities to register for free. The normal fee for Caucasian donors is $52, but thanks to another grant, this has been reduced to $25.
Even people who aren't a likely match for Tami may be able to help someone else.
You can find out more about the drive and Tami's progress at the Web site Tamaki set up at www.helpingtami.org.
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