O'ahu residents are being asked to register as potential bone marrow donors at a drive from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Kapolei Shopping Center.

Friends of Sweet Leilani have organized the event to try to find a donor for Leilani Emosi.

Emosi, 19, is an 'Ewa Beach resident and full-time student at Leeward Community College who recently was diagnosed with leukemia for a third time, this time with an aggressive form of the disease that usually requires a bone marrow transplant for survival.

Emosi is of Samoan, Caucasian and African-American ancestry, and organizers are most interested in finding potential donors who fit that ethnic makeup.

Those who register as donors will be placed on the Hawaii Bone Marrow Registry and may be called on to help others both in Hawai'i and across the nation.

Emosi's family is also accepting donations to help defray $100,000 in medical bills, at Friends of Sweet Leilani, P.O. Box 176, Kapolei, HI, or at all branches of First Hawaiian Bank, with checks payable to Save-A-Life-Enhance-A-Life Foundation.