‘Roni and Bar’ was written on the wedding invitations. The marriage was to take place in September. That was before. Before a leukemia sabotaged their every dream.
Roni had discovered small lesions on her face. Her neck muscles cramped, glands in her neck swelled, as did the roof of her mouth, and blue marks appeared on her legs. It didn’t look good and it was not long before the diagnosis was confirmed.
“This can’t be,” cried Bar. “Not now! Not when we were about to marry. Everything was ready. The invitations. The hall. The band. ”
“Don’t give up hope,” the doctor said. “A stem cell transplant can cure her, Bar. Your bride will be as good as new. We just need a genetic match for her. Someone of Yemenite or Moroccan extraction. But we need it fast. Within a month. if not, …”
And so the search is on. Ezer Mizion, the largest Jewish bone marrow registry in the world, has close to a million registrants. So far no one in the registry is a match but a drive was held in Israel and over 16,000 converged upon 36 stations throughout the country. Drives are being held in California and Florida and hundreds of swab test kits are being sent out by the NY office. Labs will be working overtime to complete the testing…before it’s too late.
“Someone will match. I’m sure of it! It has to happen!” Bar is optimistic and hoping to print new wedding invitations soon.
Each new registrant will be tested. The cost of each test is $50. Each registrant will remain on the database for decades, ready to save the life of any cancer patient in communities around the globe.
Click here to enable Roni and Bar to stand under the wedding canopy…together as man and wife.