Originally Published: 2004-10-17

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Beverly Campbell, director of the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry, says that ethnicity plays a role in defining a person's HLA, which is why people of mixed racial backgrounds or people of unique genetic makeup, like aboriginal Canadians, can have a difficult time finding a donor. But Italians are considered Caucasians, and Caucasians are the best-0represented ethnicity amongst the worldwide network of registered potential donors - 220,000 in Canada, and over 9,000,000 worldwide.
The problem in Cathy's case is not ethnicity but the presence of a rare genetic marker in her HLA. Since the international network of potential donors has failed to come up with a match, Chris and Cathy are appealing to people who come from the same region as Cathy's parents, in the hopes that someone, perhaps an unknown distant relative, has a compatible HLA profile.
"Cathy's parents come from a small community, and if there are people there who have lived there for years and years, there might be a chance that someone else has the same genetic marker," says Beverly Campbell. Cathy's parents, Francesco and Maria, are from the small town of Ruvo del Monte, in the province of Potenza, approximately 200 km east of Naples. Cathy's maiden name is Crecca, and her mother's maiden name is Muccioli.
Campbell says that targeting people who live in the region, or whose ancestors came from there, makes more sense than randomly canvassing neighbours of diverse backgrounds here in Canada. But she cautions that it will still be difficult to find a perfect match. Chris Holder is also wary of focusing solely on people from this small area of southern Italy. He has been told of near-perfect matches that have been used in cases like Cathy's and feels that there's still hope that a match could come from just about anywhere.
The motivation behind Chris and Cathy's public awareness campaign goes beyond self-interest. Both feel that the general public should learn more about the need for bone marrow transplant donators. "It's not just me," says Cathy, "there's hundreds of us waiting for a donor."

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