Aixa Brea is a vivacious 32-year-old woman who enjoys volunteering at her local church and planning her upcoming September wedding to her fiancé, John Moynihan, a longtime member of the NYPD. However, Aixa, who is Dominican, is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant to treat her aplastic anemia and save her life. Aixa is not alone; she is one of the 35,000 people annually who need a transplant of marrow, the tissue inside bones that produces blood cells.

However, Aixa has a one in 30,000 chance of finding a genetic match because people of Hispanic or Latino decent number only 400,000 of the 5.5 million registered donors in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). The NMDP desperately needs to build up its donor bank, so this past Thursday I was proud to host a blood drive at Hempstead Village Library to replenish the dwindling blood supply as well as a bone marrow screening program to help find more donors to help save Aixa and the tens of thousands of people who suffer from leukemia or other blood diseases such as aplastic anemia.

I will be hosting additional drives in the future in locations such as Farmingdale and Glen Cove and I encourage everyone, especially everyone of Hispanic or Latino descent, to come and get screened. Getting screened is easy and only requires a quick finger prick test. A small price to pay for a very great possibility of saving a life.

For more information on the National Marrow Donor Program, please call 1-800-747-2820 or visit www.marrow.org. For more information on upcoming blood and bone marrow drives please call my office at 516-571-6214. We need your help.