Seun’s Story
Seun Adebiyi is 26 and has an Ivy League education. He has a great job and a a shot at being an Olympian in 2014. Adebiyi has cancer. Lymphoblastic lymphoma and stem-cell leukemia, the cure is a stem cell transplant. For now Adebiyi has not been able to find a bone marrow match and has opted to have a cord blood transplant. Cord blood is a newer intervention and although it could be his cure, there are drawbacks including less stem cells present(than in bone marrow), longer engraftment time or the time it takes for his body to accept the transplant and start producing healthy blood cells, as well as a lack of backup cells if the first engraftment fails. Despite his personal plight Adebiyi has dedicated himself to spreading awareness and recruiting more people of African descent to join the registry.
Follow his story at Seun’s Skeleton Blog. If you’re wondering “why skeleton?” it’s because it is the Olympic event Mr. Adebiyi is attempting to qualify for in 2014.
Visit DKMS or Be The Match to join the registry today.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
[...] Love to see main stream media cover this, especially a four plus minute spot in the age of sound bite journalism. Adebiyi does a nice job of explaining the ease of registering to become a marrow donor. We briefly hit on his very compelling story last month. [...]