TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT IS THANKFUL FOR THE GIFT OF LIFE.Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer THOUSAND OAKS Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. - Valerie Sun is looking at a bright future at the age of 22, after spending her adolescence fighting a life-threatening disease. The story of her bone marrow transplant bone marrow transplant: see bone marrow. is one of 24 collected from across the United States as part of the National Marrow Donor Program's campaign ``Celebrating 20,000 Patients - 20,000 Stories'' and will be featured today at a gala in Washington, D.C. Officials said Sun's Chinese-Caucasian heritage made it difficult to find a match, but it turned out a Michigan woman with Irish and German ancestry provided the transplant to save her life. ``Her name is Julie Ryan. I met her in August, and it was very exciting to meet her, to put a face to the person who saved my life,'' said Sun, who was diagnosed with aplastic anemia aplastic anemia or anemia of bone-marrow failure Inadequate blood-cell formation by bone marrow. Pancytopenia is the lack of all blood-cell types (erythrocytes, leukocytes, and platelets), but any combination may be missing. when she was just 11. ``We have a special bond, and she will be my guest at the gala. I'm very excited.'' Most people with aplastic anemia live no more than five years, but Sun's doctors said her natural optimism helped her survive while her family, friends and community held marrow donor drives. She underwent monthly blood transfusions and overnight injections four nights a week and was home-schooled for a year after her diagnosis. She graduated from Thousand Oaks High School Thousand Oaks High School is a high school established in 1962 and located in Thousand Oaks, California. It is a California Distinguished School, and offers curriculum at all levels for Thousand Oaks students. The mascot is the lancer. at 16, enrolled at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission and learned of the donor match when she was 17. On the night of Sept. 8, 1999, at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, red fluid dripped into her veins to give her the new life she had waited seven years to receive. ``I don't think the people who manage the searches at the NMDP NMDP National Marrow Donor Program NMDP National Missile Defense Program are at peace until it is confirmed that that bag of life-giving cells is in hand and is being infused into their patient,'' said Kelly Hermanson, National Marrow Donor Program The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operates the federally funded registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors in the United States. These potential donors, numbering more than 6. search manager. Today Sun holds a degree from USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. and is in the first year of a career in marketing communications at a Westlake Village firm. ``I was actually blessed to have a decent quality of life,'' she says. ``I knew my life could not continue without problems and, eventually, I would be faced with a life-threatening situation. So I always held on to the hope that, at some point, a miracle would happen for me.'' Eric Leach, (805) 583-7602 eric.leach(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Valerie Sun of Thousand Oaks received a donor marrow transplant in 1999 to save her life from aplastic anemia. She will be in Washington, D.C., today to celebrate her story of survival and those of other recipients. |
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