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When Samantha Washko’s family found out that she would need a marrow transplant, they called Sacred Heart Catholic Church to ask them if they knew anyone that would like to do a bone marrow drive.
Cathy LaMarre, Samantha’s aunt, said the church gladly offered to sponsor it.
“They just took it and ran with it,” LaMarre said. “We’re so overwhelmed at the turnout.”
“We were worried that we wouldn’t get a response,” Ken Washko, Samantha’s father, said, watching people stream into Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Washko stood near the door all day, greeting friends and strangers alike, thanking them for coming. Visibly moved by the outpouring of support, Washko wept often.
He said he probably knew about half the people who came.
People showed up because “they want to be part of a miracle,” he said.
“This is the miracle. It’s happening all around us, right now. If we get a match, that’s great. If not, just this show of community here...
“There are so many people in need, and you never know when you might be one of them.”
The line ran out the door, with more people coming and going every minute. Parking spaces filled up at Sacred Heart and spilled into the YMCA’s lot next door.
There were people there that have given blood more than 75 times, yet they had never had their bone marrow typed.
The Red Cross had hoped for 200 people.
By 1 p.m., they’d already reached that goal and run out of money. Organizers contacted Rick Hendrick in Charlotte, who agreed to pay to type 250 more people.
By 3 p.m., that money was gone, and volunteers started passing around a manila envelope.
“People pulled money out of their wallets while they were standing in line,” Washko said. “It was amazing.”
Cell phones chirped as people called friends and family for donations. Several banks and churches contributed to keep the drive going.
In all, from the people in line to the people in the community, they raised $13,320 in donations.
Michael Bestler was waiting in line when he heard a volunteer calling his name.
She found him and explained that his friends in Concord, Steve and Danielle Martini, had been typed earlier but just heard about the need for more money.
They were calling to donate $250, but couldn’t get to Salisbury in time. So they wanted him to donate it.
“They’ll reimburse you when you get home,” she said as the crowd laughed.
So Bestler hustled to the bank to make a withdrawal and then returned, cash in hand, to make his friends’ donation and get typed.
“We were busting at the seams there,” said Paul Biernacki, Bone Marrow Consultant for the American Red Cross.
At 5:30 p.m., workers ran out of supplies. The drive ended after typing 600 people, three times what the Red Cross had hoped for.
“Funding was a major issue today,” said volunteer Veronica Hobbs, who worked the line all day and passed the collection envelope. “I cannot stress that enough.”
Nancy Weber didn’t know the Washkos before she started working on the drive. Weber was there yesterday as a representative of the church.
“Just looking around, they must be a wonderful family,” she said.
Samantha’s struggle
Doctors announced three days ago that Sam is in remission, Washko said.
But she must undergo two or three more rounds of chemotherapy before she can undergo a transplant at Duke, he said.
The first round of chemo was “extremely tough,” he said, and she suffered many side effects.
But so far, the round she started Monday has gone easier. During the bone marrow drive, Samantha was in her hospital room playing Candyland with her mom, Nancy.
Before doctors began this round, they allowed Samantha a visit home.
Sunday, she swam in her neighborhood pool.
“It was so special,” Washko said. “That pool is three inches deeper now for the tears that Nancy and I shed.”
She held onto her daddy’s back as he swam across the pool. “Daddy, we’re flying,” she said.
The Washkos hope they will be able to bring Sam home between treatments, but that depends on how she reacts to the drugs.
If all goes well and they find a match, she will be ready for a transplant in October, he said.
Many people signed a huge card for Samantha as they waited in line. Her picture and photos of others with leukemia decorated the walls in the church.
“If people don’t go home and hug their kids every night, they’re really missing out,” Washko said.
LaMarre, Samantha’s aunt, has designed a Web site for her niece and received 48 emails the first day online.
Samantha is only the third child known to have this type of leukemia, a cross between the normal childhood form and the older adult disease, LaMarre said.
To complicate things a little, she also has a rare chromosome.
“She’s going through things adults don’t even think about,” said LaMarre. “No child should have to go through this.”
This year, Samantha was going to be at Salisbury Academy, but that’s on hold for awhile.
But officials at the school still think about her and sent her a basket of pencils, since she has started collecting them in the hospital.
LaMarre explained that Samantha gets to pick a prize every time she goes in for an X-rays. She always takes a pencil and has about 70 pencils now.
Her aunt has a collection of her own that is getting smaller every day.
Donating
Typing for bone marrow is not a painful process. It is simply a matter of signing papers and giving a vile of blood from a vein in the arm.
Many people yesterday were nervous but still said that it was worth it to help another person. Many hoped to provide a match for a child with a disease that has put her childhood on hold.
Christine Smith, a donor at the event yesterday, has given blood 11 times but this is the first she has ever been typed for bone marrow.
She was there with her son, Parker, 7. Parker said that he is going to do it when he’s old enough.
Anyone can donate as long as they are between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good health.
Donors cannot be typed or donate if they are on certain medications. And as long as a person doesn’t have a heart condition, has never had cancer and doesn’t have diabetes that has to be controlled with medication, he or she can donate.
“We need to have this kind of support for all the bone marrow drives,” said Diane Davidson, a med-tech called in from Union County to help draw blood.
“All these people go into the national registry and the bigger the registry gets, the more chance we have to find a match for this little girl and everyone else who needs a transplant.”
Davidson said she’s worked bone marrow drives where only six people showed up.
Every leukemia case is as compelling and tragic as Samantha’s, she said. Davidson just worked a drive for a young mother with two babies. Before that, she helped at a drive for a high school senior headed to college on a football scholarship.
“Guess what? He’s not going,” she said. “He has leukemia.”
To type a sample for the marrow drive, the Red Cross has to send the samples to the lab, where it can take anywhere from three to eight weeks for the results to come back.
“If anyone comes up a match, they get called right away to come in for more testing,” Paul Biernacki said.
Donor’s names come off the registry the day they turn 61.
Along with the turnout Tuesday, 360 people also signed up to donate platelets.
Samantha, and other people needing bone marrow transplants, needs platelets to help her blood clot after the bone marrow transplant.
Biernacki attended Tuesday’s marrow drive and said it was the biggest turnout ever for Salisbury.
“I can tell you, they [the Hendrick Group] will be very pleased,” he added.
“I have been doing this for over six years, and this was absolutely incredible,” Biernacki said.
“I think it speaks highly of the community and of the Washko family.”
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The Web site for Samantha is www.hopeformarrow.org
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Contact Joanie Morris at 704-797-4264, Emily Ford at 704-797-4280 or either at news@salisburypost.com
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