12-year-old’s bone marrow drive continues

A twelve-year-old girl is continuing her effort to sign Marquette-area residents up for a bone marrow donor registry.

Ali Johnson is also raising money for Be The Match.

The group pairs donors with patients suffering from leukemia, or other forms of blood cancer.

Donors are needed constantly because someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with leukemia every four minutes.

“Some of the things that we need is a cheek swab, and you need to fill out some paperwork, but on the paperwork, you do not need to put your (Social) Security number and your driver’s license,” Johnson said.

It’s free for a potential donor to sign up, but it does cost money for Be The Match to connect patients with donors.

Allie is trying to raise $750.

“You’re a better match for someone if you have the same ethnicity,” she said. “They need people with more Hispanic and Spanish ethnicity, because there aren’t a lot of people with that (on the registry).”

She’s more than halfway to her fundraising goal, and she has one more day to get as close as she can.

Ali will be back at the Utopia salon in Marquette on July 31st.