University of Hawaii freshman becomes life-saving donor for blood cancer patient
By Arielle Argel
Click here for updates on this story
HONOLULU (KITV) — Mariel Tadena is a freshman studying public health at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She’s always wanted to help people. Little did she know her moment would come sooner.
“Knowing that you could potentially save someone’s life is something that really just struck me,” said Tadena.
Tadena joined the donor registry for NMDP, an organization that helps find donors for people with life threatening blood cancers and disorders.
“Less than a month later, I got the call. I was actually in class when I got the call and they were like, ‘Hey Mariel, you are a match for someone,” said Tadena.
Yvonne Ybarra, a senior director for member recruitment at NMDP said it’s especially important for minorities and younger donors to join the registry.
“Only about 50% of patients of ethnically diverse backgrounds find a match on the registry. So we need to continue to grow the registry so every patient can find a donor,” said Ybarra. “We also want to encourage 18 to 35 year olds to join the registry because we have so much research on patient transplants and outcome data and all of that. All of our research shows that younger donors provide the best outcomes for our patients when they receive a transplant.”
Ybarra added that it is also important to accept the call to help because about less than 50% of potential donors agree to give the life saving donation.
As for Tadena, she is now trying to get other Hawaii residents to join the donor registry.
“It really feels amazing that I was able to save a life early on, especially since I’m 19 at the moment, but I donated when I was 18. I am like the youngest age of that whole age range that can donate for bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplants. I find it really cool that I was able to help someone and sort of make an impact on their life,” said Tadena.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
