Locke makes appeal for cancer patient

OLYMPIA – Gov. Gary Locke, hoping to help save an 11-year-old boy who has leukemia, is appealing for potential bone marrow donors, particularly those of mixed race.

Locke, a Chinese-American who has been a blood donor since his youth and part of the national bone-marrow registry for nearly 20 years, took note Thursday of the difficulty young Greg Hachey is having in finding a compatible donor.

As the child of a Filipina and a Caucasian man, the Puyallup boy is looking for the health equivalent of a needle in a haystack: just a fraction of 1 percent of the 5 million people in the national registry are of similar ancestry.

At the moment, there are no identified matches anywhere in the world, although one lead in Taiwan is promising, said the boy’s father, Mark Hachey.

The boy and his family met privately with Locke before the governor went before the cameras to plead with “kind and generous people” to sign up – if not for this boy, then for another patient someday.

“Your bone marrow donation could save Greg’s life or the life of someone else in need,” Locke said. “There is a tremendous need for people to sign up with a bone-marrow registry. Individuals of Asian descent, and most significantly those of mixed-race backgrounds, are especially needed as donors.”

The process of joining the registry is fairly quick and not very painful, with only a couple of tablespoons of blood drawn for typing, Locke said. He said he’s never been called on to provide bone marrow, but gave blood antigens last fall after being matched with a heart transplant patient.

“You’re my hero,” Locke told the boy, who is bald and has undergone extensive chemotherapy since being diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when he was 7. The disease was in remission for a time, but it came back in March. A bone-marrow transplant is considered his best shot at survival.

The wait for a match is excruciating, the father said.

“Imagine a gun to your head and never knowing when the hammer will fall,” he said, choking up.

He said it was “an honor, humbling and amazing” that Locke would notice their plight.

Mark Hachey said doctors estimate his son has a 90 percent chance of survival if he has a successful transplant.

Leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow, is the most common form of childhood cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Zeena Smith, rare donor specialist for the Puget Sound Blood Center, said more information is available online or toll-free at (800) DONATE1, extension 1897.

The rare donor program was created in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Charitable Foundation and the Group Health Community Foundation.

Minority blood donations in the region have risen 44 percent since 2000, but they still account for only about 3.5 percent of the blood supply.