A Long, Hard Battle

2001 Adult Cancer Survivor: Patricia Murray's Story

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has named Patricia Murray as the NMDP's 2001 Adult Cancer Survivor as part of National Cancer Survivors Day, which will be held on Sunday, June 3, 2001.

In August of 1990, Patricia's life changed forever. She was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. After trying other treatment options in hopes of curing the disease, her doctors realized that her only chance for survival would be a marrow transplant from a donor not related to her.

Three years after she began her search for an unrelated donor, a perfect match was found. On June 17, 1999, nine years after her original diagnosis, she was given a second chance at life. "All I can say is, it works, I am proof of that!" Patricia exclaimed.

African American patients are far less likely than others to find a matching donor from the NMDP's Registry of more than 4 million potential unrelated marrow and blood stem cell donors. Despite eight years of targeted recruitment efforts, which have increased the number of potential African American donors from 59,104 to 342,820, they are still underrepresented on the Registry. Patricia has made it her personal mission to increase the number of African Americans on the Registry. She has spread the word about the need for more African American donors through organizing donor drives and by talking with state legislators. "I am living proof why African Americans need to join the Registry," says Patricia. "Nobody would know looking at me today, that I was ever sick."