A Pepperdine student’s struggle with cancer, and to find a matching bone marrow donor, highlights a registry drive taking place this week at the university’s campus.
By Bridget Graham / Special to The Malibu Times
When Pepperdine University graduate student Christine Pechera was diagnosed with cancer in 2002 she was given 30 days to live. When she didn’t die within the month, her doctors started chemotherapy. But when that didn’t work and the cancer was still growing six months later, Pechera received her first bone marrow transplant.
“The first time I was able to be my own donor,” Pechera said. (If there are still some clean cells within the body, a recipient can use their own bone marrow.)
But when she learned in 2006 that she needed a second bone marrow transplant, it was the start of the fight for her life.
This was all after she watched her brother die of cancer at the age of 14.
Of Philippine decent, finding a bone marrow match is more difficult for those of minority descent.
“Out of a few million donors, you maybe have a chance of finding one match,” Pechera said.
This week, Pepperdine University will conduct three bone marrow drives in honor of Pepperdine alumnus Robert Corrales, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who played baseball for the Waves during the mid-seventies. Officially deemed the Robert Corrales Honorarium, the event is sponsored by the Pepperdine University baseball team and the National Marrow Donor Program with the goal of raising awareness of the needs of Corrales and other Pepperdine connections, including Pechera, interrelated in this cause. Pechera has become the face of this current drive, and she has promoted the Pepperdine drive on YouTube with a video PSA detailing her ordeal. She has also appeared on Nightline, KTLA and other news outlets over the years, chronicling her fight with cancer.
Suffering from leukemia, Corrales has undergone chemotherapy, which is not meant to cure the cancer but only to put it into remission, while waiting to find a match. Something Pechera knows too well.
“Chemo was to prolong my life, my time, until I could find a donor,” she said.
Fortunately, she did find a donor-half a world away. But it was only a partial match.
“He was a different blood type, a male versus female. There was a less than 10 percent survival chance,” Pechera said. “But I had no other choice.”
Her donor, Kent Wong, watched his wife struggle with leukemia; he registered knowing he wanted to give back to whomever needed his help one day.
“It really is about people helping people,” Pechera reflected. “Even when my friends and family were out registering people when I needed to find a donor, we did it to know that someone we registered might help someone else. We all just help each other.”
Using the partial match that actually changed her blood type, the process was a success for Pechera. She is cancer-free today.
Heather Collart, director of Marketing and Alumni Relations for the athletic department at Pepperdine University, teamed the registry drive with the baseball team. During the team’s games this Wednesday through Saturday the registry will take place.
To offset the cost of DNA testing, there is a suggested donation of $52. However, to encourage minorities to register, the National Marrow Donor Program will pick up the tab for them, as well as for college students. But Collart emphasized that the fee is suggested, and not to let that deter anyone from coming out to register. She also emphasized the simplicity of the process.
“To be a bone marrow donor is nowhere near as complicated as one thinks,” Collart said. “There is no blood [taken] and it takes all of 10 minutes.”
She said the longest part of the process is filling out the paperwork. A potential donor fills out documents to attest they are in good health. There is a DNA mouth swab and the sample is sent to the lab and put into a database. If, down the road, you are a match with someone, you will be contacted for a physical to confirm you are indeed in good health.
“If you’re a donor, you’re home by dinner,” Pechera said of the process. “It is for the recipient that the recovery time is hard-about a two-year process.”
Collart confirmed: “I’m not sure why Hollywood makes it out to be so dramatic. Seventy percent of the time, the donor who is a match is just giving an extended blood donation. Thirty percent of the time, it may be outpatient, but even then there are no stitches; it isn’t invasive, and it is just general anesthesia.
“It is, at the most, one day of discomfort to save a person’s entire existence.”
The bone marrow registry drives take place this Wednesday, 10:45 a.m.- noon at Pepperdine University’s Firestone Fieldhouse; Thursday and Friday, 2 p.m.- 5 p.m., at the university’s baseball stadium; and Saturday, noon-3 p.m. at the baseball stadium. More information can be obtained by calling 310.365.3154.