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The following e-mail was forwarded to me from a minister - it was

written by a personal friend of his who does not have long to live

without our help. THIS IS NOT A HOAX. Please, pass this on via e-mail,

fax, phone or in person to every single person/organization that you can

think of...because it will only take reaching ONE person to save this

man's life. Thank you and Bless you.





"Dear friends, apologies for the mass-mailing and for the delays.

Most of you have not heard from me for awhile, or at best received a

cursory note saying that I was busy.  I owe each of you an

explanation.  When reading what follows, I ask that you think of

pleasant times and conversations, both profound and light-hearted,

that I have had with each of you.  Without further ado, here is my

explanation:



As each of you already knows, I have been suffering from chronic

myelogenous leukemia for more than two years.  Various attempts to

control or eradicate the cancerous bone marrow cells have so far

failed.  But at least my doctor and I were able to keep the cancer at

bay to the extent that I could function as a normal and real human

being.  For the past two years I have sought treatments, worked and

played, traveled and enjoyed the big and little things in Life,

continued old friendships and even built new ones, and found Love.

So in a sense my cancer was not real, it was merely an abstraction

from a blood smear.



Now everything has changed, and not for the better.  On July 7, 1997,

I was diagnosed as entering 'blast crisis', where the erstwhile

chronic leukemia becomes acute and chemotherapeutic regimens become

but delaying actions to forestall the inevitable.  From three to six

months from now my cancerous marrow cells will proliferate out of

control and kill me, unless they are ruthlessly eradicated and

replaced with someone else's healthy bone marrow.  Of course that

healthy marrow must be tissue-compatible with me (must 'match' me).



Most of you already know about the existence of bone marrow donor

registries, that no one on those registries matches me, and that the

best chance of finding someone who matches me is to add as many

Asians as possible to those registries.  And many of you, thankfully,

have made great efforts to add Asians to those registries.

Unfortunately, despite two years of effort, we have not yet found a

match for me.  So today, I ask you to join me to try again.  I say,

One last push.  Because THIS IS IT."



So what to do?  Just get every Asian on the planet registered.

Here's how to do it:



1. If you are Asian, get yourself registered.  And your relatives

   too.  



2. Get all your Asian friends, colleagues, and associates registered.



3. Pass this note (soft and hard copies) or selected parts of it to

   everyone, and I mean EVERYONE.  I have written a 'personal appeal'

   at the bottom of this email that should be suitable for this

   purpose.  The same appeal appears on my new website.



4. Website, what website?  It should be up-and-running by the time

   you get this email.  It is rudimentary, but is improving.  The

   technical master behind it is Ben Burbridge and technical

   difficulties shall be made known to him.  This website contains all

   sorts of stuff that are useful in order to get registered and to

   convince other people to register.  Feel free to copy or download

   anything there.  The URL is www.slip.net/~rwwood



5. Volunteer for registration drives, or organize one yourself.  An

   easy way to do this is to call up one of the non-profit organizations

   that exist to register Asians. 

     

6. Do your own thing.  For example, Ray Lin has today taken it upon

   himself to contact every news agency in the San Francisco Bay Area

   and talk them into running a story about me.  Holle Singer filmed an

   interview with me in New York to be used as a public service

   announcement.  Ben of course created the website.  Others of you have

   volunteered to write newspaper articles or to create videos or to

   contact Asian community organizations or Asian churches.  Translation

   of my personal appeal into Korean and Vietnamese is a must (I already

   have people doing Chinese and Japanese).



7. For more information, consult the website, contact the non-profits,

   or talk to my parents James and Joyce [djea88a@prodigy.com], my

   sister Zenda [zendakuo@compuserve.com], or my sweetie Ako [ah@aapcho.

   org].  DO NOT REPLY to this email address, as it is temporary.



I find this letter strange, because as you know I am a fairly

independent kind of person.  But for the first time I truly truly

need your help.  Without it I definitely will not make it to your

next birthday party.  ;)



Good luck, take care, and of course, be most excellent to your

friends.  Love, Alan



PERSONAL APPEAL follows



Hello.  My name is Alan Kuo.  I have only three months left to live,

according to my doctors.  Only someone like you can save me.  This is

why:



I have leukemia, a cancer of the blood.  The only known cure for this

disease is a bone marrow transplant.  Without it I will die.  To

receive a transplant, I must find a tissue-matched donor.  Because

tissue type varies by ethnicity, my matching donor will most likely

be found among people like myself, people of Asian descent - like

you.



So far, I have not found a matching donor.



This is why I am appealing to you, a fellow Asian, to ask for your

help.  You and your friends can make the difference between life and

death for me, as well as for others present and future who suffer

from this cancer.  It takes just fifteen minutes of your time, a

simple blood test will determine if you are my match.  Please help

save my life by registering with your local marrow donor program.



My parents are immigrants from China and Taiwan, and I love them and

my sister dearly.  My family has pushed me to study hard at Harvard

and to earn my PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; I am

presently doing biomedical research at the University of California

at San Francisco, a premier medical center which is also treating my

leukemia.  I am sad that my promising career is being prematurely

terminated by a random disease.  I am far more saddened by the

possibility of being separated forever, in as little as three months,

from my family, from my many friends, and from my dear Ako.  And I

>wish more than anything to continue enjoying this blessing we call

Life.  So please get your tissue typed, you might save a life.