4-year-old Armenian girl in need of bone marrow donor

4-year-old Armenian girl in need of bone marrow donor
Sunday, April 04, 2010

Charlotte Conybear (KGO Photo)

Several Bay Area churches are part of a nationwide effort to find a
bone marrow match for a 4-year-old girl.

Charlotte Conybear and her parents live in the Philadelphia area where
doctors have been searching for a bone marrow match for her since last
year. Charlotte is part Armenian, an ethnic group with distinct DNA
features.
Five Bay Area Armenian churches agreed to take part in an Easter
registration drive.
"It’s a very simple process, they have to fill out a form, they have to be
between the ages of 18 to 61, they have to be healthy, and we just do
a cheek swab right now," said Karim Premji with Bethematch.org. "If
they are a match, there is another process that happens."
The National Bone Marrow Registry is especially in need of potential
donors who are members of minority groups.
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