Be The Match help patients with blood cancers find their life-saving match. And for a teenager who's been diagnosed with leukemia twice, that’s exactly what she's hoping to find.
Diana Lopez, 14, was first diagnosed with leukemia on Mar. 5, 2017, and battled cancer for two years until she was pronounced cancer-free on July 18, 2019. Unfortunately, on one of her routine check-ups, this past October, doctors discovered that cancer had returned, according to a GoFundMe page set up for Diana.
“It’s difficult to see a child go through this, my own daughter went through this four years ago,” Armando Raymundo, a close friend to Lopez said. “Diana doesn’t deserve to go through this.”
Lopez's family held a fundraising event at Sunset Park Sunday to raise money for medical expenses and encourage people to join the Be The Match registry.
“She needs people to join the match registry in hopes that they might be her genetic match to be able to donate the blood stem cells that she needs,” Yolanda Loera with Be The Match said.
Loera explained that donating blood stem cells is a simple, painless procedure and that it is very similar to donating blood.
“It’s important because right now we don’t have enough ethnically diverse people on our registry, anyone who is not Caucasian has a less than 50% chance to find a match."
Yolanda Loera, be The Match
California
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Raymundo said Lopez's Quinceañera for next June was canceled after they received the news. He hopes he can help find Lopez a match. In fact, he found his daughter's match with Be The Match from someone in the Netherlands.
“She needs this match to save her life, it’s important that we can get as many Latinos to join the registry to help Diana or other patients,” Loera said.
People who wish to help can text DIANA to 61474 to receive a swab kit. For more information visit their website.
