Posted on: Sunday, September 5, 2004
Marrow donor happy to help
| • | Family's very survival depends on donation |
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
For marrow donor Kathy Fu, any discomfort or time it takes to give is small compared to the chance to help save a life.
Fu, a Honolulu preschool teacher, donated three times to help an 8-year-old Mississippi boy fight leukemia.
"If you are a match for somebody, you can change their life," Fu said. " You can give that person a second chance at life."
Fu first signed up as a donor in 1996 when the community rallied to try to find a donor to match preschooler Alana Dung during her long, fatal battle with leukemia.
Fu, 45, lives in Honolulu and teaches at Pali Preschool in Nu'uanu. She first donated bone marrow in August 2002. She stayed overnight in the hospital, rested the following day at home and felt some pain in her hip. "The worst part for me was coming out of the anesthesia," she said. "It really wasn't that bad."
In December 2002, she donated white cells, similar to giving blood, and then in June 2003, she donated stem cells through the PBSC procedure. "It's just like giving blood except you have needles in both arms," she said.
That procedure took about four hours with four days of shots leading up to the visit.
"There's a little discomfort but it's really nothing compared to what the person is going through," she said
Fu, the mother of two, said she's happy to have the chance to help. "You don't even have to be the same ethnic background because my recipient is Caucasian and I'm Japanese."
She said the treatments have helped the boy she matched — 8-year-old Tyler Warren — successfully fight leukemia.
"He's going back to school now and I e-mail his mom and we keep in touch," Fu said. "It's very special. He's really changed my life."
