Hotels across the United States host marrow drives

On Monday November 18th, 2013, nine hotels across the United States in the full service division of Sage Hospitality will host Love Hope Strength in a drive to raise awareness of the need for bone marrow and blood stem cell donations, and give guests and associates the opportunity to GET ON THE LIST. The List is the National Marrow Donor Program, an anonymous list that doctors around the country can use to match a patient in need to a donor in the treatment of many different cancers. Every 4 minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer. YOU can be the match to save someone like Ava!
Why are they doing this? Ava Foster, the daughter of the AGM at the Hilton Del Mar, Justin Foster.
Justin writes “Ava was diagnosed at 17 months (March 2012) with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). She underwent 4 rounds of chemotherapy spending up to a month in the hospital each time. Ava was officially in remission on July 30th, 2012. Unfortunately her AML returned in August of this year and we have started her fight again. She has since been thru 2 rounds of chemotherapy that have put her temporarily back into remission however a bone marrow transplant will be necessary to have long term success on eliminating her AML for good.

 

On this friday she will check in for the transplant round. She will undergo high dose chemotherapy and low dose radiation to help prepare her body to accept the transplant. On November 18th, Ava will under go the transplant. From there we will wait for the new bone marrow to engraft. The donor is from North Carolina and it is actually umbilical cord blood which is rich with stem cells. The transplant is completed just like a blood transfusion. Ava is an incredibly strong young lady that has a very positive spirit. We are confident she will be in full recovery.”

 

Participating hotels include:
DoubleTree by Hilton Minneapolis – Park Place
Embassy Suites Hotels Denver Downtown
Hilton College Station
Hilton Del Mar
Holiday Inn Hotel Denver East – Stapleton
Holiday Inn Missoula Downtown
Denver Airport Marriott at Gateway Park
Marriott Napa Valley Hotel and Spa