Glen Ellyn mom organizes bone marrow registration drive

The symptoms Vivian Palicki's mother dealt with before being diagnosed with Leukemia were nothing that hinted at cancer.

Elizabeth Linck-Munch was dealing with fatigue and some regular nosebleeds six months ago when her doctor gave her the news. With no family matches for a bone-marrow transplant, she was immediately put in touch with the National Marrow Donor Program and is still waiting for a donor.

This is where Palicki came in. The Glen Ellyn woman organized a registration drive Saturday at the B.R. Ryall YMCA, where family, friends, neighbors and even a few strangers came in to sign up to be on the marrow donor list.

"The chances of my mother finding a match here today are slim to none, but we still wanted to make something positive out of a bad situation," Palicki said.

You see, Linck-Munch is Hispanic.

And while roughly 7 million available donors are on the marrow transplant list, most of them are Caucasian. That makes finding donor matches particularly difficult for minorities.

"We need the support of the community to grow that list," said Sadie Davis, a local executive of the National Marrow Donor Program.

Palicki reached out to the group to get help in running the registration drive, and she plans on organizing more drives in the future, particularly in Hispanic communities.

"We wanted to start with our community first," Palicki said. "They've been so supportive of what we've been doing. But we don't plan on stopping here."