For those of you who do not know Briana, she
is the funniest, cutest, most beautiful, sweetest person you could ever
meet. She is not doing so well and desperately needs bone Marrow donor.
Please help us spread the word and find a donor for her Bone Marrow
Transplant. We need people to get tested to see if they are a match!
Please visit your local blood bank and get tested. She is going through
chemotherapy now and fighting an infection but will soon need transplant
to continue. Please consider the amazing gift of being a donor and
saving someone's life.
Here is Briana's story:
Briana
was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic leukemia on February 22nd, 2012,
which was two weeks after her 10th birthday. So far her treatment has
been going well and she was able to be put into remission 29 days after
with the help of all the amazing care she has been provided by her
doctors and nurses from Miami Children's Hospital (we LOVE you guys). We
have also been blessed to be given so much
love, kindness and support by our family and friends and are truly
grateful. Along the way Briana was able to get to do some very special
projects including speak at several charity functions to raise money, a
music video (on YouTube) with Gloria Gaynor called Bald, Brave, and
Beautiful, walk in a fashion show for the amazingly talented designer
Rene Ruiz, which he personally designed a dress for her, a Fashion Night
to give back with Ricky Patel, speak at the 2012 Diamond Ball charity
event for the Miami Children's Hospital Foundation in front of over 700
people, and received the first ever reward for a child from The Cancer
Support Community, called the Champion of Human Spirit Award, and so
much more. So to say that we have been blessed with great opportunities
is an understatement. Because of this illness, Briana has been able to a
bunch of things she always dreamed of that she may never had been able
to do, so we always look at the positive and not the negative and focus
of giving back and charging forward. So with that being said, Briana was
so happy to learn that she would be able to finally go back to school
since she had been in remission for over a year and a half and Briana
was enrolled into Westminster Christian School to start her journey of
going back to normal! But everything changed on October 8th, 2013, We
learned that Briana has developed a secondary cancer while still in
remission for ALL, and now she has developed Acute Myeloid leukemia,
which requires a Bone Marrow Transplant. This time around has been much
more difficult for Briana to bounce back and she has been very sick but
we are thankful that there is a plan. We have not wanted to ask our
friends and family to help due to the burden of getting tested but we
are in need of people willing to get tested to become a Bone marrow
donor. We have not been able to find a perfect match for her and the
donors that have been found have not been responsive. We have always
remained positive that everything will be ok, as we know GOD has a plan
for Briana as she is such a special child. Anyone that knows her, knows
that she is a fighter and tough cookie and has too many pranks up her
sleeve to stop now. We are asking people to please get tested. It's a
simple swab of the mouth at the local blood bank and you are added to
the national registry, where Briana is looking to find a donor. The
actual process is done under sedation and a central line is placed to
take the bone marrow from donor. We ask that everyone research the
procedure to better understand the process. All we would like to do is
ask if anyone is willing to be a Bone Marrow Donor, please go get tested
and maybe we can find a match for Briana or so many others!
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