A friend in need - serious

Hello,
Some of you LA folks may know Justin Van Hoy aka the Dutch Giant (of the Dutch Press or Swindle Mag)? You have probably seen him around, a very tall, lanky, redhead, with a quiet, unarming demeanor. He's not my close friend but he is someone I often shoot the shit with art events along with his brand new wife Holly, who happens to teach Kindergarten at Angelo's old school; both of them are incredibly endearing, lovely people. Justin is suffering from a relapse of Luekemia and needs a bone marrow transplant asap in order to get through this. So far none of his relatives are a match. I am going in this week to see if I may be a match but the more willing donors the better his odds are. The test is very simple, either a cotton swab on the inside of your cheek or a blood sample, being a match entails about 2 weeks of discomfort on your end and actually saving the real life of one of your peers. Please read his email below and consider what is at stake and if you would be willing to help.

Hi everyone. First off, I hate sending a mass email about anything, but
this is really the best way to do it. I'm sure I forgot to put some
names on here, so pass this around as you see fit...

In case you have not heard, I have had some bad luck and relapsed from
my remission from the cancer ( leukemia ). I had a 30% chance of
relapsing, and unfortunately that 30% has happened. This time around
there is no chance to cure it with regular chemotherapy though, and I
have to have a bone marrow transplant. My brother and sister are not
matches, so we are having to go searching for an unrelated donor. With
this being said, It would mean the world to me if any of you would take
the time to see if you are a match. To get tested is
really simple and only requires a mouth swab or a very quick blood test.

Some of my information you will need:

• Name: Justin B. Van Hoy ( Please tell whomever you are dealing with
that my name is Van Hoy and not Vanhoy. The spelling is important, so
make sure they put a space in between Van and Hoy )
• Date of Birth: 2-27-1981
• Medical Record # 0017538881 ( Kaiser Permanente Hospitals Southern
California )

I will be doing my transplant at City of Hope ( http://
www.cityofhope.org ), which is just east of Pasadena. It is a really
amazing cancer center and highly regarded, so its really great they are
only about 10 miles from my house. If you are in the greater LA area,
you can go directly to City of Hope to donate blood and get tested at
the same time. There is a $50 fee for processing the marrow sample, but
if you donate blood too, then the cost is waived. If anyone finds it
hard to spend the $50 ( I know times are tough right now, so let me
know and I will reimburse you myself.) If you have any questions and are
planning on going to City of Hope, you can call 626-301-8483. It works
best to make an appointment if you are going up there.

You can also request to have a kit mailed to you. This way you can do
the test yourself and mail it back. Have your results mailed back to
you, and you can send them to me here at my home. Because of medical
confidentiality blah blah blah, they cannot have the results sent
directly to me. But this way I can give the results to my people and
they can sort everything out. My mailing address is:

146 South Avenue 56
Los Angeles, CA 90042

If you aren't in the LA area,here are some links for registering with
the National Bone Marrow Registry, the entire registry is a worldwide
network and is also linked in with the Red Cross, so there are lots of
places to go if you aren't in the LA area. Here are links to
figure out where the closest is for you:

http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_Now/
join_now.html
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_in_Person/
index.html


I hate asking anyone to have to do this, and I think you all know me
well enough that I wouldn't unless it was really important. Let me know
if you have ANY questions at all and I will get them answered for you.
You can also email my new wife with questions..
holly603@gmail.com Please feel free to send this email along to
anyone, I need as much help as I can get. Post it on your blogs or dump
it in your email blasts, etc.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Talk with you soon.


-justin