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Donor found to help RSL player's wife
By James Edward
Deseret News
Somewhere in Spain, someone has emerged as a potential lifesaver for Marcia Williams.
Nearly a year after the wife of Real Salt Lake midfielder Andy Williams first started experiencing the symptoms of what was eventually diagnosed as a rare form of leukemia, a bone-marrow donor match has been found.
It's not a perfect clinical match, but it's close enough that doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle are going to proceed with the transplant on June 12. For the first time in months, there's optimism in the Williams household amid the many obstacles that still lie ahead.
First, Marcia must undergo her third round of chemotherapy next week. Then there's the pain of the transplant procedure followed by the uncertainty of whether her body will accept or reject the transplant.
The tight-knit soccer community in Utah and throughout the country rallied around the Williams family, but in a broader perspective they rallied around the entire marrow donor program, and that's what makes the news of a donor match for Marcia so inspiring.
The donor marrow program works, even from a continent away.
Until Andy Williams' wife was diagnosed with leukemia, I was a bit na?e about the entire bone-marrow donor program. Marcia's plight, however, helped me and thousands of others in the soccer community realize we can help. By filling out some paperwork and the painless swabbing of a cheek, we became registered bone-marrow donors.
More than 6,000 men, women and children search the National Registry for a lifesaving donor match every day. Marcia Williams has been one of those patients for the past nine months, and a match was found an ocean away.
Only 1 in 200 registered donors will ever actually be utilized, but who's to say that you or I aren't the match a young patient in Germany or Ohio is praying for?
For me, registering was about doing my part. Modern medicine is there to save lives like Marcia Williams', she just needs help. Only 30 percent of those seeking a transplant find a donor match among family members. The remaining 70 percent need to find a match among the 10 million registered bone-marrow donors worldwide.
Are you one of the 10 million registered donors? If not, it's easy to become a potential life saver. Log onto dkmsamericas.org and request a registration packet be mailed to your home.
Before a match was found for his wife, Williams said, "continue praying and hoping for the best. God has a decision for all of us, and hopefully it will be a good one for us."
Now that a match has been located, Williams and his wife no longer deal with the heartache of wondering if a match will ever be found. A simple civic duty in Spain was the answer to that prayer.
"Now the focus and all the energy is it will be accepted," said Andy Williams.
By James Edward
Deseret News
Somewhere in Spain, someone has emerged as a potential lifesaver for Marcia Williams.
Nearly a year after the wife of Real Salt Lake midfielder Andy Williams first started experiencing the symptoms of what was eventually diagnosed as a rare form of leukemia, a bone-marrow donor match has been found.
It's not a perfect clinical match, but it's close enough that doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle are going to proceed with the transplant on June 12. For the first time in months, there's optimism in the Williams household amid the many obstacles that still lie ahead.
First, Marcia must undergo her third round of chemotherapy next week. Then there's the pain of the transplant procedure followed by the uncertainty of whether her body will accept or reject the transplant.
The tight-knit soccer community in Utah and throughout the country rallied around the Williams family, but in a broader perspective they rallied around the entire marrow donor program, and that's what makes the news of a donor match for Marcia so inspiring.
The donor marrow program works, even from a continent away.
Until Andy Williams' wife was diagnosed with leukemia, I was a bit na?e about the entire bone-marrow donor program. Marcia's plight, however, helped me and thousands of others in the soccer community realize we can help. By filling out some paperwork and the painless swabbing of a cheek, we became registered bone-marrow donors.
More than 6,000 men, women and children search the National Registry for a lifesaving donor match every day. Marcia Williams has been one of those patients for the past nine months, and a match was found an ocean away.
Only 1 in 200 registered donors will ever actually be utilized, but who's to say that you or I aren't the match a young patient in Germany or Ohio is praying for?
For me, registering was about doing my part. Modern medicine is there to save lives like Marcia Williams', she just needs help. Only 30 percent of those seeking a transplant find a donor match among family members. The remaining 70 percent need to find a match among the 10 million registered bone-marrow donors worldwide.
Are you one of the 10 million registered donors? If not, it's easy to become a potential life saver. Log onto dkmsamericas.org and request a registration packet be mailed to your home.
Before a match was found for his wife, Williams said, "continue praying and hoping for the best. God has a decision for all of us, and hopefully it will be a good one for us."
Now that a match has been located, Williams and his wife no longer deal with the heartache of wondering if a match will ever be found. A simple civic duty in Spain was the answer to that prayer.
"Now the focus and all the energy is it will be accepted," said Andy Williams.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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