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Boy’s Life Depends on Right Donor

Marin parents need help finding bone marrow match for eight-year-old son

Enrico Console. photo courtesy of www.helprico.org

By Neela Banerjee

Eight-year-old Enrico Console chased his squealing 6-year-old sister Nina around the couches in their living room in Terra Linda, Calif. He had a determined look on his face as he rushed through the kitchen, close on her heels.

“He always wants to play when he is home, even if he is exhausted,” his father Tony said, as he looked down the hall after his children. “He stores up all that energy when he is sitting in the hospital with an I.V. in his arm. Everything out here is an escape from in there.”

Enrico was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of four and suffered through three years of intensive chemotherapy. After just one year of remission, he suffered a relapse, which puts his chance of survival below 10 percent. Now, the Console family is asking their community and the world for help in finding a bone marrow transplant match for Enrico — a search indicative of the ongoing and critical need for Asian bone marrow donors.

Enrico’s parents, Tony and Debbie, met some 19 years ago in San Francisco. Tony, an Italian immigrant, said that Debbie got off the bus right in front of the hair salon where he used to work. After exchanging numbers and Debbie getting a haircut from Tony, they said that things were pretty much sealed.

“I married Tony just six months after moving here from Taiwan,” Debbie said.

After living in San Francisco for many years, the Consoles moved to Terra Linda in Marin in 1995. While they were busy settling into their new community, Enrico began falling ill often.

“He starting coming down with constant ear infections and was tired all the time,” Tony said. By the time they got him tested he already had a high number of leukocytes, the cells that cause leukemia.

Enrico started three full years of intensive chemotherapy.

“He was transformed,” Tony said. “He lost his hair. He lost his color. He was swollen from the medicine.”

At that time, Enrico’s chance of survival was 70 percent. After three years, the aggressive chemotherapy sent the cancer into remission just as the doctors had promised.

But just months after Enrico went into remission, Debbie was diagnosed with breast cancer and started her own regime of the destructive chemo treatments.

“There is no history of cancer in either of our families,” Debbie said. “We think it is from the chemicals here, the pesticides, the genetic engineering that is done. But really there are no answers, nowhere to place the blame.”

With no answers, what came next nearly devastated the entire family. After just a year of full remission, Enrico’s cancer has come back and this time his chances of survival are almost nonexistent. For some time, both mother and son were in intensive care.

“After he relapsed, everything changed because his body has already been bombarded,” Tony said. “It’s like when a city is bombarded during a war and the city has just started to rebuild itself. If you start again then it is very weak, no protection.”

Enrico’s best chance for survival is a risky bone marrow transplant operation, which would require a three-month stay in the hospital. This would push his survival rate up above 20 percent. But finding a match for him is nearly impossible due to his unique hapa heritage and because of the lack of bone marrow donors, especially those of Asian descent.

The transplant would replace Enrico’s human leukocyte antigens, which are inherited from each parent.

“There are six antigens that we need to match perfectly,” Carol Gillespie, of the Asian American Donor Program, said. “You’ll get three of those antigens from mom and three from dad, which is already very unique. Enrico has three Chinese or Taiwanese antigens, and three Caucasian or Italian antigens — which is very rare.”

Gillespie said that there is a 40 percent chance for most people to find a match in the current registry, which only has about 4 million people in it.

“These odds are reduced tremendously if you have a mixed blood person that is looking for a donor,” Gillepsie said.

The Asian American Donor Program and other similar organizations have been doing serious outreach to the Asian American community for the past 10 years. They have typed over 55,000 Asians, but the numbers are still low. Blood testing is free for Asian American — or any minority — donors. All other blood testing costs $85.

“I understand why the numbers are low,” Tony said. “There are cultural differences that may keep people from donating. But people need to be educated about this and donate, not just for Enrico, but for everybody who could use it.”

A fundraising concert at St. Mary’s Church in Chinatown will be held Friday, Jan. 26, followed by a blood testing drive Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Sts. Peter and Paul Parish Center in North Beach. Both of these events are being organized by Bay Area church and community groups.

“It has been very hard to keep my head on my shoulders, very hard to stay strong,” Tony said. At this point, their medical bills are over $30,000.

“I have been a hairdresser for over 25 years, but since I have been so busy my shop has suffered,” Tony said. “Because I am never there, my stylists have left, my customers are not happy. So I am at a point now where I have to sell the shop. I need income, but the rent is killing me.”

Tony and Debbie said they have dealt with so much hardship and sorrow, but the kindness of friends and strangers does make things better.

“A couple from Sausalito, who didn’t even know us, donated $5,000,” Tony said. “Several good friends of mine have raised a couple of thousand dollars. That gives me hope and it lets me put bread on the table.”

Tony and Debbie said they are no longer shy about telling people about their hardships. They need all the support they can get, especially because their families are so far away.

“We have so much sorrow and pain, there is no reason to keep it all inside,” Tony said. “Because what I see in my mind, I see God three inches away from my wife and my son. If you knew what we went through, you would realize you can’t keep it inside. I say let the world hear. Let the world come in with love and give love.”

Enrico Console Trust Fund
Bank of Marin
P.O. Box 2039
Novato, CA 94948

For more information about Enrico: http://www.helprico.org