Leukemia sufferer finds marrow donor, helps others

Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic

Joseph Cajic, whose Web site urges people to have their bone marrow tested
for donation, learned Friday that he has a possible match.

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By Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 11, 1999

Five years ago, Joseph Cajic's Arizona State University football jersey
bore his lucky number - 79.

Today, somewhere in the National Marrow Donor Network sits his new lucky
number - 00491227-5.

The number that might save his life.

"Whoever it is, I love them," said Cajic, 27, after learning Friday that a
bone-marrow match has been found that may cure his leukemia.

Three months ago, frustrated by waiting for a match, Cajic set up his own
Web site - http://www.savejoe.com - urging people to have their bone marrow
tested or donate money to pay for others to be tested.

Cajic, a Croatian who faces worse odds of finding a genetic match than
others, has raised $2,000 through his non-profit organization since The
Arizona Republic wrote about his plight in August.

But the site did not lead to the match for Cajic (pronounced CHI-ich). The
anonymous donor's blood was drawn one day before Cajic's site went up on
the Internet.

Cajic doesn't know when he will receive his bone-marrow transplant, which
will take place at the University Medical Center in Tucson.

His doctor, Adrienne Briggs, said Cajic has at least a 50-50 chance of
being cured with the transplant. "The younger you are, the less medical
problems you have, the better you do," Briggs said. "He's very young and
has no other problems."

She called the match "as good as a perfect match."

Meanwhile, Cajic plans to maintain his non-profit foundation, which has a
fund balance of $4,100, according to Rebecca Mayberry of the Arizona
Community Foundation.

He wants to use the money and future donations to pay for others' tests,
which run $50 per person.

"We have two (bone-marrow) drives this fall, and the City of Hope is paying
for 1,000 people to get tested," he said. And it won't stop there.

"Certain people get callings in life, and this is my calling," he said.
"There's no way I'm quitting now."

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Kerry Fehr-Snyder can be reached at (602) 444-8975 or at
kerry.fehr-sny...@pni.com via e-mail.