Benefit concert scheduled for ailing travel agent Ah Yo

By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i musicians will perform July 21 to help well-known travel agent Didi Ah Yo pay medical expenses for her battle with leukemia.

Ah Yo, 52, who gained fame with her Creative Holiday television commercials and the slogan, "Didi Ah Yo and away we go!" was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2000.

"Our theme for the event is there's always hope," said organizer Marmie Kaaihue, Ah Yo's friend for 17 years. "She's still under doctor's care, and is far from all the way home, but she remains her same energetic self."

Ah Yo, who opened Creative Holidays in 1982, hopes to attend the event. "I still get my good days and better days, and I'm trying not to do too much, but it's hard when it was always go, go, go," she said.

The fund-raiser will feature Henry Kapono, the Makaha Sons, Vaihi, the PBS Band and others at Kapono's in the Aloha Tower Market Place. It will run from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is $10.

Ah Yo, who rarely saw a doctor, became concerned when she started to get strong, long-lasting headaches and heard swooshing sounds in her ears. Her husband, Paul, persuaded her to get a check-up.

After three blood tests, doctors told Ah Yo she needed a bone marrow transplant.

Fortunately, Ah Yo's sister, Lissa Leong, was a 97 percent match. In December 2000, Ah Yo received a bone marrow transplant at the City of Hope research center in California .

When she fully recovers, Ah Yo wants to help other people with leukemia because so many people have touched her own life when she fell ill.

"It's wonderful when you have a strong support system," Ah Yo said. "I never imagined this many people would care about me, but it just tears your heart apart when people come out, people you don't even know, and they share their aloha with you."

For more information about the fund-raiser, call 591-9422.

Reach Shayna Coleon at scoleon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8004.