Rest in Peace Little Barry Pham

It’s with great sorrow that I write today about the passing of 16-month old Barry Pham. I have never met the little superhero or his immediately family, but had been following his story pretty closely behind-the-scenes with the Asian American Donor Program and Team Matthew. We both had acute lymphoblastic leukemia that was classified “bi-phenotypic” in nature. A simple glance at his blog shows all our medical similarities … down to the core of the same chemotherapy soldiers called upon to defend us from the horrendous onslaught of Mr. Leuk/Luke.

B is for Brave Barry

I could go on and on about how there is no justice in this world or why it makes no sense to me that young babies have to endure the pain of life-threatening illnesses, but it leads us nowhere. In memory of Barry’s heroic efforts and exceptional qualities at only 16-months of age (which I dare say should put him in the House of Gryfinndor for all you Harry Potter fans), I want to ask if any of you can spread the word about two particular drives held for the Vietnamese community nationwide:

Midwest:

Carthage, Missouri on August 6th and 7th 2010

1900 Grand Avenue, Carthage, MO 64836

9:00 am to 9:00 pm

For more details about this particular drive and how you can help, please contact Ted Nguyen, the Vietnamese Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for A3M, at tnguyen@A3Mhope.org

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Northern California:

San Jose, Grand Century Mall on August 14, 2010

1111 Story Road, San Jose, CA 95122

11:00 am to 3:00 pm

For more details about this particular drive and how you can help, please contact Annie Doan, the Vietnamese Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for AADP, at annie@aadp.org

It is actually best if you are able to crumple up your sleeves and volunteer an hour or so of your time to recruiting marrow donors to join the registry. All you need to do is contact those coordinators I’ve listed above, and I assure you that they will get back to you as soon as they can. Sitting behind a computer screen and pressing a button to share this is fair enough in the internet community, no doubt, but sometimes it all comes down to face-to-face persuasion to save someone’s life. I can’t think of a better person today that we should to do this in honor of than little Barry.

For more information about his courageous story, please visit his website at: www.savebarry.org

Thank you so much, Barry and his family, for inspiring me with your battle while I was in the hospital during my intensive rounds of chemotherapy. My sincerest condolences to everyone who knew him, but at the same time I have a lot of hope that because of Barry’s bravery and impact in the world on his very own terms … many children in the future will not suffer under the truculence of Mr. Luke/Leuk.