HONOLULU – The Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry will hold special drives at this weekend's Flavors of Honolulu event at City Hall in hopes of finding a bone marrow match for Sharon Casil Paoa, a 54 year-old woman with acute leukemia who has already survived cervical and throat cancer.

The bone marrow registry booth will be open from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Prospective donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good general health. Donors need only to register once. If you have already registered and need to update your information or would like more information about becoming a donor, call the Registry at 547-6154 or visit its national website at www.marrow.org

According to a news release, the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry was founded in 1989 and joined the National Marrow Donor Program to help patients in Hawaii and all over the world find healthy and willing bone marrow or blood stem cell donors.

Only 30 percent of patients will find matching donors within their families. Matches are more easily found between people of the same ethnic background.

Since 1989, the HBMDR has recruited approximately 68,000 registered donors throughout Hawaii, Guam, and American Samoa. More than 251 of those donors have actually donated bone marrow or blood stem cells for patients all over the world.