The following quote is from a recent article in the Tacoma News Tribune:

"Leukemia might kill Wayne Mangan, but he's saving lives in the meantime.

Eight drives organized by Mangan and his friends have failed to find a bone marrow donor for him, but they have found tentative matches for six other people.

Mangan couldn't be happier.

'I might die with this disease,' he said. 'But I know darn well what we are doing will save someone.'"

We found out about Wayne Mangan earlier this week when we made our donation to Cascade Regional Blood Services (CRBS). Wayne has CML (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia) and has not responded well to Gleevec, which is the primary treatment for this disease. At this point his best chance of survival is to find a bone marrow donor, but so far a willing match has not been found.

The Church for All Nations in Tacoma will be hosting a blood/marrow drive in Wayne's honor on Saturday, May 20th from 8:00am to 4:00pm. The Church for All Nations is located at 111-112th St. East, Tacoma, just east of 112th and Pacific Ave. If you live in the Tacoma area please come and support this event by bringing friends and family. A huge BBQ for all will be provided and they are hoping to break the National record for the largest one-day bone marrow drive.

If you don't live in the Tacoma area, visit the The National Marrow Donor Program website for information on where you can sign up for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry.

-- Todd

P.S. After we left CRBS on Wednesday we went to Red Robin for dinner and my wife struck up a conversation with our waitress Lori about their respective kids. Lori pulled out a photo of her daughter Nevaeh and we saw that she was bald. It turned out that Lori's daughter has ALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia) and the whole family have become good friends with Wayne! (The little girl in the photo w/ Wayne above is Nevaeh!) What are the odds that we'd decide to go to Red Robin for dinner that night and get the one waitress there whose daughter has Leukemia and who knows Wayne? My life is just a series of strange coincidences!