Emersyn ‘Emmy’ Freund.

The family of a 15-year-old Fair Haven girl recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia has launched an effort to find a critical bone marrow match.

They’ll be holding a registry drive this week.

Diagnosed in December with AML leukemia, Emersyn ‘Emmy’ Freund, a freshman at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, learned recently that she will need a bone marrow transplant.

“We were hoping one of our other kids would be a match, but they are not,”
her mother, Lori Gaines Freund, wrote on Facebook. “So we are now turning to the national bone marrow registry to find her donor.”

The Freund family is working with Be the Match, a registry maintained by the National Marrow Donor program, to find a donor for Emmy.

Potential donors should be between the ages of 18 and 40 years old, and need only to register and provide a cheek swab, using a free kit the organization will send by mail.

If you are a match:

Bone marrow donation is achieved via one of two methods of collecting blood-forming cells for bone marrow transplants. It is a surgical procedure that takes place in a hospital operating room. Doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow (where the body’s blood-forming cells are made) from both sides of the back of your pelvic bone. You will be given anesthesia and feel no pain during the donation.

After donation, your liquid marrow is transported to the patient’s location for transplant. Typically, the hospital stay for marrow donation is from early morning to late afternoon, or occasionally overnight for observation.

The donation will take place in a hospital that is experienced and participates in marrow collections for Be The Match.

Lorie Freund wrote that the aim is to “flood the registry with as many potential donors as possible. “Even if you are not a match for our girl, you could be a match for someone else.”

The Freund family and friends will hold a registry drive Wednesday, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 200 Fair Haven Road.

Potential donors can also register and obtain swab kits via the QR code at right, or by texting “EmmystrongNJ” to 61474.

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