Stem cells for Michael Brecker

[shunn]

I'm surely not the only jazz aficianado here who nurtures a deep love and admiration for the music of Michael Brecker. He's been one of the most in-demand session saxophonists of the past 30 years, recording with the likes of Steely Dan, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Dire Straits, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren, and literally dozens if not hundreds of others. But it's his jazz work, both as a leader and a sideman, where he's proven himself an all-too-rare innovator among modern tenor players.

He's fairly upbeat in a New York Times article from last week, but there's no getting around the fact that Michael Brecker will die without a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant:

Mr. Brecker, 56, was recently found to have myelodysplastic syndrome, a form of cancer in which the bone marrow stops producing enough healthy blood cells. His doctors say he needs a blood stem cell and bone marrow transplant, a harrowing procedure that will be possible only if Mr. Brecker finds a stem cell donor with a specific enough genetic match for his tissue type. So far, they have been unable to find one from the millions of people on an international registry for bone marrow donors....

Fellow musicians have been spreading the word in music circles, urging people to be tested to find a possible match for Mr. Brecker. There was even a rumor circulating that a match had been found, which turned out to be false....

Doctors told Mr. Brecker he had a 25 percent chance of finding his match from a sibling or one of his children. But neither his sister, Emily, nor his brother, the trumpeter Randy Brecker, nor either of his children matched. Neither did the distant relatives the family tracked down. He and his family are hopeful about the Red Sea Festival drive because Mr. Brecker's lineage is Eastern European Jewish and doctors tell him patients are most likely to match someone of their ethnic group....

[Susan] Brecker said that although the family was desperate for a donor—and would certainly accept a donation from someone looking to donate only to Mr. Brecker—they were urging people not to become "Brecker-only" donors, but rather to sign up with the donor registry.

"I just want to be on the line," Mr. Brecker said. "I want as many people as possible to get tested, not just for my sake, but for the thousands of other people who might need what I need."  [full article]

At Brecker's web site, you can learn more about (the easy process of) being screened as a marrow donor and about stem cell transplants in general.