The fact that we have identified a potential match for her is really exciting," said Julie Kornike of Be The Match.A bone marrow transplant can be a potentially life-saving procedure for those with leukemia. There are some 30 million people on the worldwide registry and none were a match for Rabaca - until now.The registry is particularly in need of people with mixed ethnic heritage for many other potential recipients without a match. A Southern California woman battling cancer while pregnant with twins has found the perfect bone-marrow donor just weeks after her touching story went viral. But for the process to work, the donor needs to be a close match.
– After the story of a woman battling cancer while pregnant with twins made headlines, a record number of people signed up to find out if they could donate bone marrow to her—and now Susie Rabaca has found a perfect match. Rabaca, already a mother of three and due to give birth to her twins Dec. 6, needed a 100% match to treat aggressive acute myeloid leukemia. "For me to find one and for it to be 10 out of 10 at that is amazing. Nothing better in the world right now," the Los Angeles 36-year-old tells 6 ABC. She tells the Daily Breeze it's a "miracle." Out of 30 million people on the worldwide registry, none was a match for Rabaca until her story went viral. She's part Caucasian and part Latino, making it more difficult to find a full match. Within days of Rabaca's story first airing on TV, more than 50,000 people had signed up on Be the Match. "Only 3% of our registry is mixed ethnicity and so it can really difficult to find a matching donor," says a Be the Match rep. "The fact that we have identified a potential match for her is really exciting." The anonymous donor is still undergoing testing. Rabaca's bone marrow transplant is tentatively planned for Jan. 9. (More on her story here.)