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Bone marrow drive to be held Saturday for local teen 

A second drive will be held July 30 in Arroyo GrandeScreen shot 2016-07-16 at 7.03.49 AM

Jack’s Helping Hand, a local nonprofit that helps children with cancer and special needs, is partnering with Be The Match to hold a bone marrow drive for local teen, Danae Ontiveros, on Saturday July 16 at Kennedy Club Fitness in Paso Robles.

A second bone marrow drive and blood drive will be hosted by “Team Mateo” on July 30 at Village Preschool in Arroyo Grande to benefit Ontiveros as well. Donors are needed to help find a bone marrow match for this young woman who has been diagnosed with Myelodyplastic Syndrome, a side effect from prior chemotherapy that is causing her bone marrow to fail.

At age 16 Ontiveros was originally diagnosed with Stage 3 Ewings Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer that primarily affects children and adolescents. After fighting her way through chemotherapy and successfully completing a surgery that removed the tumor on her lungs and ribs, she was cancer-free. Unfortunately, due to the chemotherapy she has now been diagnosed with Myelodyplastic Syndrome, which is causing her bone marrow to fail. Ontiveros needs to have a bone marrow transplant before MDS progresses into an aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Ontiveros just finished her first year of nursing school at Dominican University but is unable to return because of her cancer. Not being able to attend school, she has been donating a majority of her time to Jack’s Helping Hand and other local children with cancer. Jack’s Helping Hand is helping her cause by hosting the bone marrow drive for Ontiveros and other patients in need of bone marrow transplants.

The first drive will be held on July 16 at Kennedy Club Fitness in Paso Robles from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The second bone marrow drive will also include a blood drive and will be held at Village Preschool in Arroyo Grande on July 30 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. To register as a donor you must be between the ages of 18 and 44, be willing to help any patient in need and be in general good health. Those interested can also register online at www.bethematch.org/join using promo code Hope4all.

 

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The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.