LOS ANGELES — It took only weeks, but a woman who is pregnant with twins who was also diagnosed with leukemia got some life-saving news -- a perfect bone-marrow match has been found.
Susie Rabaca was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She needed a perfect match to treat the aggressive cancer. Her sister was only a 50 percent match and doctors said she wasn't close enough. What made the search even more difficult was her mixed ethnicity -- Rabaca is Latino and Caucasian, KABC reported.
The registry had 30 million people listed before Rabaca's story went viral, NBC News reported. Out of the 30 million people, no one was a perfect match, NBC News reported.
"Only 3 percent of our registry is mixed ethnicity and so it can be really difficult to find a matching donor. The fact that we have identified a potential match for her is really exciting," Julie Kornike, a spokesperson with Be The Match, told KABC.
Rabaca and her family tried finding a donor through social media.
Family & Friends, Susie’s amazing story brought in nearly 40,000 registrations over the holiday weekend – WOW is all we can say! This is unheard of & was a record-breaking weekend for our Registry! To continue this momentum, Be The Match has set a new goal of adding another 60,000 individuals to the registry before she delivers her twin babies on December 6. Our goal is 100,000 people added to the registry! We can't do it without your help! Please join today and get one person you know to join for #givingtuesday join.bethematch.org/susie #savesusie Be TheMatch Ellen DeGeneres
Posted by Save Susie on Monday, November 26, 2018
Days after Rabaca's story went viral, nearly 40,000 people signed up with Be The Match, KABC reported.
Rabaca has not met her bone marrow donor, but she couldn’t be more grateful for a stranger’s help.
"Whoever you are out there, thank you so much. You're saving my life. You're an angel, and I hope one day to meet you," Rabaca told KABC.
Rabaca is expected to give birth to her twins on Dec. 6. The bone marrow transplant will happen after their birth, KABC reported.
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