You can help save the life of a Brooklyn mom.
Jennifer Jones Austin, a resident of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, is fighting a brave battle against Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant — as soon as possible.
“Without a transplant, doctors give her little chance of survival,” explained State Senator Eric Adams.
Adams, who represents Austin and her family in the 20th Senate District, is asking Brooklynites to attend upcoming donor drives to see if they are a match for Austin.
“A simple cheek swab will be all that is needed to determine if you could be the one to save Jennifer’s life. Equally important, and equally easy, is the fact that a good samaritan only need donate blood; no surgery is necessary,” Adams said.
A Web site dedicated to finding 41-year-old Austin a donor, www.savejenaustin.com, notes, “What many people don’t realize is that today’s medical technology allows testing of potential donors as well as actual transplants with little disruption to the life of the donor(s). Testing is as simple as a swab of the inside of the cheek. The actual donor process is as simple as giving blood. The donor gives blood from an arm; a machine separates the blood-forming cells and returns the blood to the donor through the other arm.”
Shawn Austin said his wife is a loving mother of two children, ages 12 and seven, and is very much dedicated to improving her community.
“Jennifer is a very vibrant individual, very much driven in terms of work and responsibilities,” Shawn told this paper. “She is very in tune to the community, very much all about helping the community. She’s a very giving person.”
The Austin family has struggled to find a donor, as national bone marrow registries have a limited number of African-American and Hispanic donors.
“This is a real call to action,” Shawn Austin said. “Minorities in the database are certainly nowhere near the number of Caucasians in the database so less than 50 percent of the people who need assistance get help. It’s really a call for us to help ourselves. Not only Jennifer, but there’s thousands of African-Americans and Hispanics who need help.”
The Austin family has scheduled three donor drives in Brooklyn:
January 17 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cornerstone Baptist Church, 562-74 Madison Street. For more details, contact Gustavo Patritti at 888-638-2870 or Gustavo@icla.org;
January 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Medgar Evers College, 1150 Carroll Street. For more details, contact Adams’ office at 718-284-4700;
January 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, 222 Tompkins Avenue. For more details, contact Brenda K. Nealy or Sharon Bromley at 718-388-3900 ext. 31 or Natalie Jones at 917-301-9019 or jonbrkly@aol.com.
