Mother Fighting Leukemia With Special Needs Child Pleads Community to Be Her Match

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Playtime is a lot of fun for 11-year-old Vida and her mom 28-year-old Corrina Santacruz. Their Indio home is filled with toys and love.

Vida relies on her for everything. She’s blind, autistic and developmentally delayed.

Corrina is a single mom.

"My daughter is my everything," she says through tears.

But she’s afraid she may not be there for her daughter. In April she was diagnosed with leukemia. She’s in desperate need of a life saving bone marrow transplant. But is having a hard time finding a match.

"And she’s the reason why I‘m trying to reach out to everyone so I can get a donor so I can do this transplant so I can be here longer with her."

None of her relatives are a match, they’re of Mexican descent and because Latinos make up only 11 percent of the Be The Match national bone marrow registry, she’s asking the community to sign up for her online drive.

"I want to be here to be able to take care of my daughter and it’s just so important for people to go and donate because it can potentially save my life," she says.

Maria Cuevas with Be The Match says adding your name to Corrina’s registry is easy. You do it online then you get a kit in the mail, "And then you’ll swab the insides of your mouth, literally 10 seconds is all it takes and then gets put back into the envelope and then sent back to our main headquarters in Minneapolis," adding even the actual bone marrow procedure and transplant have come a long way and is not as painful as many think, thanks to advancements in medicine.

This week is Vida’s birthday, she was excited to tell us all about it, "My wish for my birthday is when I get presents."

You could be the one to give her and her mom the gift of life.

"It would make me the happiest person, it would make everything so much better," says Corrina as she wipes away tears.

"I need you to be the match for my beautiful mom," says Vida.

To register to Be The Match for Corrina click here: SAVE CORRINA

or log on to Join.BeTheMatch.org/SaveCorrina