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Tulare Native Gives Gift of Life to Stranger
By Julie Fernandez
Visalia Times-Delta
17 February 2006
She gives stem cells to a boy with leukemia
Staff writer
TULARE - Their quiet, soft-spoken daughter had pleasantly surprised Tulare residents Steve and Nellie Nunez so often that they were not surprised to learn in 2004 that she had registered with the National Marrow Donor Program.
What did surprise them and Maria Nunez, now a 21-year-old senior at the University of California, San Diego, was the telephone call she got two months later, telling her she was a possible match for a 15-year-old boy with leukemia.
"I was kind of taken back," Maria Nunez said. "People said, `Wow! I've been on this registry for 10 years and never got a call.' "
Further testing in the summer of 2004 indicated her antibodies and that of Texas teenager Adrian Marin were a match on all fronts.
In October of that year she underwent a procedure in San Diego that allowed doctors to collect the stem cells from her peripheral (circulating) blood and give them - and a second chance at life - to Marin.
Because of confidentiality regulations, Nunez and Marin, now 17, had to wait a year before they could even learn each other's name.
They had a very public first meeting last month when the Marrow Donor Program, the National Marrow Foundation and Saturn brought them and their families to a Dallas hospital for a press conference that kicked-off Saturn's ninth annual National Donor Day.
"They interviewed him and his family first and then they brought me out," Nunez said.
People had told her that what she did was a good thing, but it wasn't until she met Marin that the realization that she had actually saved another person's life really sank in.
"When you don't see the results, it's kind of hard to believe," she said.
The National Marrow Donor Program is seeking to register more minorities, a move Nunez agrees is imperative.
"It's important to make sure that every ethnic group is represented as best as possible to give everyone a chance of recovering from a horrible disease," Nunez said
She first learned of the marrow program when she and her Phi Lambda Rho sorority sisters attended an event sponsored by Alpha Kappa, a Latino fraternity, seeking more potential donors, she said.
Because she knew that those in the Latino community who need a transplant have a lower chance of finding a match than any other ethnicity, Nunez said she was determined to go through with the procedure once she learned she was a match.
"That and the boy's age really affected me," she said. Marin was 15 years old and her brothers, Richard and Steven, were 13 and 17 respectively at the time.
"He [Marin] could realistically have been one of my brothers," she said.
For five days before her donation, Nunez was given injections to increase stem cell production, which she said caused achiness in her bones. She was achy and sore after the procedure as well, but was able to return to classes after taking a couple days off, the psychology major said.
Her mother, who stayed with her during that time, said she is proud of her daughter.
"She's always been a good girl," Nellie Nunez said.
Her father agreed.
"She doesn't cease to amaze us," Steve Nunez said. "She seems like a shy, quiet girl and then she does something like this."
Nunez' daughter's actions even ended up inspiring him to help others.
Steve Nunez said he went on the marrow registry after his daughter did after reading about a drive to find a match for 3-year-old Paul Lerro, a Visalia boy with a rare form of leukemia.
i The reporter can be reached at jfernand@visalia. gannett.com.
How to help
Potential marrow or peripheral blood cell donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60, in good general health and willing to be available if identified as a match.
Information: The Central California Blood Center in Visalia, 625-3121 or <http://www.marrow.org> www.marrow.org .
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