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#SWABFORCARYN
Photo/ @swabforcaryn Instagram
Meet Caryn Hsu.
She’s a wife, a daughter, a current USC graduate student, and an active Tzu Chi volunteer. She’s also just 32 years old.
This year, Caryn received life-changing news. She has B-Cell MLL-Rearranged Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with an unfavorable chromosome mutation. It is a very rare and aggressive form of leukemia (especially given her age) that leaves Caryn with a cure rate of just 10% with chemotherapy alone.
Within a week of being diagnosed at the ER, she was hospitalized and immediately put on her first round chemotherapy to destroy overproducing white blood cells. Unfortunately, chemotherapy also kills healthy red blood cells. To counteract this, Caryn has been receiving blood transfusions to replenish her red blood cell supply. As of March 2, she’s received a total of 6 chemotherapy treatments so far.
In order for her body to produce any healthy white blood cells, Caryn needs a blood stem cell transplant.
Photo/ @swabforcaryn Instagram
With a transplant, her chances of recovery significantly increase to 70%. Her doctors at City of Hope are currently searching the global donation database registry called Be the Match, but so far no match has been found as there is a shortage of registered donors from ethnic minorities that are suitable for Caryn. This is why we need your help.
To diversify the registry and help save more lives, we’re calling on people ages 18-40* (and particularly of Asian heritage) to sign up as potential donors of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) and bone marrow.
Joining the registry does not guarantee that you will be matched with someone, and you still reserve the right to decline if a match is made in the future.
HOW TO JOIN THE REGISTRY
VIRTUALLY
1. Register online (or text SWABFORCARYN to “61474”)
2. Receive your kit by mail
3. Swab and return your sample
4. All done!
IN-PERSON—NYC
• Visit the Tzu Chi Manhattan Service Center (63 Canal Street, New York, NY 10002) or Tzu Chi New York Office (137-77 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354) anytime from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm daily until April 30, 2022.
IN-PERSON—CALIFORNIA
• Visit the Tzu Chi Health Center – Alhambra (1000 S. Garfield Ave., Alhambra, CA 91801) or Tzu Chi Health Center – South El Monte (10414 Vacco St., S. El Monte, CA 91733) anytime from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm daily.
• Visit the Be The Match registration booth at the Compassion in Action: 2022 Tzu Chi Walkathon in San Dimas, CA, taking place on April 16, 2022 from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. For more information, please click here.
Follow @swabforcaryn to see updates of Caryn’s journey:
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is proud to partner with Be The Match to help save the lives of cancer patients just like our beloved Caryn.
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is a global non-profit humanitarian organization founded in 1966 by a Buddhist nun named Dharma Master Cheng Yen in Taiwan. Its missions of medicine, charity, education, and humanistic culture have brought relief to 127 countries and counting. In 1989, Tzu Chi USA was established and now has 62 offices across the US. The heart of Tzu Chi is embedded in its name: in Chinese, “tzu” means compassion and “chi,” relief.
For people with life-threatening blood cancers—like leukemia and lymphoma—or other diseases, a cure exists. Be The Match connects patients with their donor match for a life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. People can contribute to the cure as a member of the Be The Match Registry®, financial contributor or volunteer. Be The Match provides patients and their families one-on-one support, education, and guidance before, during and after transplant. Be The Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP), a nonprofit organization that matches patients with donors, educates health care professionals and conducts research through its research program, CIBMTR® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research®), so more lives can be saved.