HOUSTON — A local Army veteran and former Houston Fire Department engineer operator is praying for the public's help as she looks for a life-saving stem cell donor.
“I woke up that morning with a bruise on my side, a very large bruise about the size of my hand. I didn't know where it came from," Yolanda Lee, of Missouri City, said.
She said she still remembers that moment she knew something was wrong.
“My numbers were critically low and I needed a blood transfusion," she said.
It was the day after Christmas when Yolanda and her husband, James, had to go to the emergency room. She ended up spending five days in the hospital.
“I then received a bone marrow biopsy, which came back as diagnosing me as MDS, myelodysplastic syndrome, which is a blood disorder where the stem cells produced in the bone marrow do not mature into healthy blood cells,” Yolanda explained.
Now, James, a pastor, said Yolanda, who has always taken care of everyone else, desperately needs a stem cell transplant.
“We're trusting God in this, so the adjustment is having to more take care of her as opposed to depend on her," he said.
To help find a match, the world's largest stem cell donor center, DKMS, is partnering with them to host a blood stem cell registration drive.
“The donor registry is made up of, of course, of several different groups of all the different ethnic groups of people, but your tissue typing is matched to your ethnicity or where you're at, what your background is," James said.
Yolanda is one of the 70% of people suffering from blood-related illnesses who must rely on donors outside of their families.
According to DKMS, finding a match for minorities is even harder, making it all the more important for people of all backgrounds to sign up and get swabbed.
“Less than 10% of the people that are in the registry, are actually African Americans. And then depending on the ethnic group, like Hispanics, I think are somewhere around 15 to 18%. And Asians are like less than 2%," said James. "The whole process (of testing to find out if you're a match) takes about five to seven minutes."
The drive will be held on Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bethel's Heavenly Hands, located at 12660 Sandpiper Drive.
“I'm praying for a donor for myself, and also for others," Yolanda said.