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BY KRISTEN ALLOWAY
Star-Ledger Staff
A bone marrow drive will be held Saturday for a 12-year-old Wayne girl who
has fought Hodgkin's lymphoma for two years.
Nicole Gioia needs a bone marrow transplant to boost her immune system and
keep her healthy, her father, Rick Gioia, said yesterday.
A "social butterfly" who excelled at tae kwon do and softball before she
became ill, Nicole learned two years ago that she had Hodgkin's lymphoma, a
type of cancer that begins in the cells of the immune system.
Drive participants should be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good
health. The test requires giving a vial of blood that will be screened and
the results entered into a national registry of marrow donors. Though
participants might not match Nicole, they could be a suitable donor for
someone else in need of a bone marrow transplant.
"The idea is to transplant somebody else's immunity into Nicole's. The
feeling is her immunity is defective, which is why the cancer keeps
recurring," said her father.
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Nicole is in remission, but
continues to receive monthly chemotherapy to keep the cancer away. Each time
Nicole has stopped chemotherapy treatments, the cancer has returned, her
father said.
"They will not discontinue the chemotherapy until she has a transplant,"
Gioia said. "You can't live on chemotherapy a very long time."
The drive will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Calvary Temple, 1111
Preakness Ave., Wayne.
For information on the drive or to find another time to be screened as a
possible donor, visit Nicole's Web site, Nicolegioia.org, or call (800)
336-3363.
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