NBC Bay Area’s Mike Inouye shows why donors are in need.
With huge crowds for mega-concerts recently making headlines at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, I wanted to talk about a much more intimate concert that may have a much more wide-reaching impact. A global impact.
It’s a story of two sisters who have made successful careers using their art, music and online media to build communities large enough to sustain careers in their respective fields.
Emi Grannis is a metalsmith/jewelry maker based in San Francisco, but with clients who can see and buy her work from anywhere via Instagram stories.
Kina Grannis is a musician and actress, creating content since her early days when it was the strength of her online community that helped her win a contract with a major record label, then propelled her forward to eventually create her own record label, tour internationally, and appear in a major motion picture.
Earlier this year, however, the pair leaned into their online communities as they deepened the search for a bone marrow donor match for their mother, “Mama G”, after her 20-year battle with cancer entered a new phase.
Kina explained, “It really started when I was a freshman in high school, she was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called Polycythemia Vera.”
“I remember reading my dad’s text, ‘Mommy no longer has Polycythemia Vera… it has now progressed to a bone cancer called Myelofibrosis… and my heart sunk,” Emi recalled.
Though stable at the moment “Mama G”, as their mom is affectionately called, needs to have a bone marrow transplant. But as of yet, after searching tens of millions of candidates in the global database, she still does not have a viable match. And even though any one person could potentially match with another, the chance of finding a match within one’s ethnic group is much more likely.
Emi and Kina want you to know registration is quick and painless, just a couple of swabs of your cheek, which is so much less invasive than a deep nasal swab to which we are now accustomed due to COVID.
Data from BeTheMatch registry reflects the odds of finding a donor match based upon ethnic group, and how uneven they are for minority groups. This is why the Grannis family has taken to their outreach effort, reaching out to a more ethnically diverse group through “cheek swabbing pop-ups” like Thursday’s sold out concert at Great American Music Hall, at community events, and publicizing them through their social media posts.
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They continue to try to register as many more donors as they can, to find as many more matches to save as many more lives as they can, including that special one they call “Mama G”.
Below are some links to learn more about Mama G, the overall need, and how you can register for the database:
- DKMS - “Mama G”
- Register domestically
- Register internationally
- BeTheMatch
- DKMS "SWABTEMBER" drive
- A match for Mama G
