Angels for Alec

By Michael Farnworth

For the Journal

POCATELLO— After a two year hiatus due to lack of funding, the angels were out in force Monday afternoon at the Phil Meador Courtesy Ford dealership in Pocatello for the "Angels for Alec" blood and bone marrow drive. Over 450 applicants showed up at the drive today, over 100 of which were deemed eligible to join the bone marrow donor registry.

The "Angels for Alec" drive was started by Raul and Diane Cano in 2001.

"We lost our funding and had had to stop the drive for two years," Raul Cano said, "We got a new sponsor in the Northwest Inland Blood Center of Spokane, and a Special Grant from Wells Fargo that allowed us to be able to start the drive back up. We want to be able to help others, after the community tried to help us," Cano said. "This year, our focus is trying to help Ralph Bennet."

Bennet was diagnosed with MDS, a form of Leukemia that prohibits his bone marrow from reproducing white blood cells. Bennet is part of the registry of patients looking for a matching donor. "Of the 9 million people on the donor's registry, we haven't been able to find one 10 for 10 match for me." Bennet said. "I'm very humbled," he said of the turnout for the drive. "The community has reached out for me on several occasions. They've helped me emotionally, and financially, and it is very very humbling."

"It seems that at least one person a year out of Pocatello gets called to be a donor," Diane Cano said, "And for a registry of 9 million, thats a pretty good average."

The Cano's son Alec Cano was 6 when he passed away from Leukemia in August of 2000.

"By doing these kinds of drives, we can try to help other people that need the same kind of help that our son needed." Diane Cano said.

Eileen Damone began working with the "Inter-northwest Blood Center of Spokane" in 2000 and travels the region recruiting others to donate to their cause

"I've always had jobs working with people and traveling," Damone said, "so when I saw the ad for this job, I thought what a great job, and a perfect fit for me. I get to do what I've always done while helping people that need it along the way."

"The registry drive provides a tissue typed pool of donors," Damone continued. "That way when a person that needs a marrow transplant and cannot find a suitable match within his or her family, they can turn to the registry where there is a list of 9 million donors nationwide, and another 9 million worldwide."

When a patient needs a bone marrow transplant, their doctor takes down their information, and issues a search on the donor list. The registry is then used to try and match the patient with a donor that has a 10 for 10 match.

When someone wants to be a part of the worldwide donor list, they fill out the application which consists of health history questions. Once their application information has been processed and a person is deemed eligible, they are swabbed for DNA and the sample is sent into the registry.

Once this is done, if they are a match to a patient on the list they are contacted through the contact information entered on their application.

"Sometimes we find matches on the list," Damone said, "but when we try to contact the applicant, we find that they have moved. It can be heartbreaking sometimes, but we have been able to help a lot of people."

If you were unable to make it to Courtesy Ford for the "Angels for Alec" drive on Monday but would still like to join, you can do so by going online to www.bethematch.org

"This is a great website," said Damone, "You can do research on the site, and you can join by hitting the join button. When that is done, the swab kit will be sent to you in the mail. Once received, you simply swab the insides of your cheeks according to the instructions and then mail them back into the organization. It's as simple as that."

"We would like to thank Phil and Becky Meador of Courtesy Ford," Raul Cano said, "They have been absolutely wonderful. They are so community oriented, and they have been so generous. Every year they clear out their showroom and basically quite selling cars for the day so that we can hold this drive, and we are just so grateful to them, and I believe that even Becky Meador got on the bone marrow registry our first year." Cano said.