Joining together to help others

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Joining together to help others

Glendale Memorial agrees to back project to establish Armenian bone marrow donor registry.

 

 

By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA

 

GLENDALE -- A small effort is getting a big boost from one of the area's most well-known hospitals.

Dr. Frieda Jordan of Glendale and a handful of supporters last year began working to establish a bone marrow donor registry for Armenians around the world suffering from leukemia and other blood-related diseases.

For months, the effort progressed slowly.

By April, the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry Charitable Trust had raised less than $30,000. That left the group far from meeting its goal of opening a tissue typing laboratory in the Armenian capitol of Yerevan and establishing recruitment centers around the world.

But the effort to meet the specific bone marrow needs of Armenian patients leapt forward this week when Glendale Memorial Hospital agreed to back the project.

The hospital promised to help promote the project, provide supplies and fund tissue typing in Yerevan and the U.S. for three years, officials said.

"We are very excited," Jordan said of the partnership with Glendale Memorial. "As well as a financial support, it's a very big moral support."

Patrick Petre, the hospital's chief operating officer, said the project gives Glendale Memorial a way to serve its community.

"There are things that you need to do for your constituency," he said. "The Armenian population [in the area] is a big part of what we are."

Jordan said the trust plans to open a laboratory in Yerevan before the end of the year and one in Los Angeles in January. A blood-drawing center will also be opened early next year at Glendale Memorial, she said.

"I'm extremely happy with this progress," Jordan said.

"Everybody said, 'This is impossible to do' and it's very difficult to raise money," she said. "This is against all odds."

But more people have been donating to the trust in recent months and a fund-raiser to be held tonight in Sherman Oaks is expected to bring in about $10,000, Jordan said.

The project has the support of Bella Kocharyan, the first lady of Armenia, and was co-founded by Sevak Avagyan, the country's former deputy health minister.

Jordan, who recently left Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in order to devote more time to the project, said she considers establishing an Armenian bone marrow donor registry a personal mission.

But the effort involves many people and Jordan credited Glendale's large Armenian community for helping the project progress.

"Without their help, this project would never happen this fast," she said.

HOW TO HELP

* WHAT: Armenian Bone Marrow Registry Charitable Trust.

* INFO: The trust was founded in 1999 to help find bone-marrow donors to meet the specific needs of Armenians with leukemia and other blood-related diseases.

* DONATIONS: Checks should be made out to the Armenian Bone Marrow Project and sent to the trust at 347 W. Stocker St., No. 208, Glendale, 91202.

* CONTACT: For more information, e-mails can be sent to: frieda.jordan@att.net.