When 26-year-old Dana Thomas-Womack learned she would need a bone marrow transplant to combat her acute lymphocytic leukemia, her aunt, Westbury resident Johnnie M. Walker, turned to the community for help.

Bone marrow transplants are used to treat people with a number of different life-threatening blood diseases. However, only 30 percent of those who require transplants find donors with appropriate blood/marrow matches within their families. In addition to her family and friends, sympathetic Westbury residents who had heard Thomas-Womack's story showed up en masse to participate in a blood/marrow donor drive held in Hempstead June 6.

Although a donor with all of the six requisite antigens proved impossible to find, surgeons at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina were able to perform the operation using three antigens from her older brother.

Thomas-Womack's recovery from the Oct. 29 operation has been nothing short of a miracle, according to her doctors. However, Walker is appealing once again to the Westbury community for help--this time to offset the expense of the operation.

A bone-marrow transplant costs almost a quarter million dollars to perform. Only a fraction of this expense is covered by insurance. Thomas-Womack, a resident of Long Island until the 10th grade, and a current resident of Richmond, Virginia, is expected to be in recovery in South Carolina for four to six months, and cannot work for at least a year. The cost of the procedure has become an exorbitant burden for the family.

Thomas-Womack's friends and family have sponsored a number of fundraisers, including a block party/yard sale/fish fry held Nov. 13 at Walker's Westbury home. However, they are still in dire need of donations. Contributions can be sent to Mrs. Dana Thomas-Womack c/o Mary E. Guinn (Thomas-Womack's grandmother) at 18 Allen St., Hempstead, NY 11550.

Walker, who describes her niece as "my heart" said she is grateful for all the prayers and generosity the community has shown thus far.