Julie Arloro-Mehta is helping save a life. The Reading resident elected to participate in a routine cheek swab donor screening last year. After months of testing, she discovered she was a perfect bone marrow match for a c cancer patient here in the US. Arloro-Mehta didn't hesitate to move forward despite the commitment and recovery that would be necessary to provide this gift to a person she did not know.
She has been dedicated to helping those who are battling cancer for many years. Arloro-Mehta's father, Nick Arloro, a longtime employee of Lowell General Hospital, passed away from pancreatic cancer after being treated at the hospital's cancer center, a center he helped create the vision for and establish. Arloro-Mehta has been supporting their annual fundraiser - TeamWalk for CancerCare - for years, but never imagined it would lead her down this incredible path. This winter, she underwent the donor procedure, where bone marrow was removed from the top of her hip bones on either side. The recovery, which produces flu-like symptoms and takes several weeks, went well and she is now feeling 100 percent. She hopes to someday know the recipient she helped but that will be some time away.
"I've known people who have found a match," said Arloro-Mehta. If something ever happened to my son or my husband and we weren't a match, I would hope someone would step up."
As Lowell General's TeamWalk for CancerCare is coming up on May 18th at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Arloro-Mehta is hoping people will come forward to make a difference for local cancer patients and their families. Arloro-Mehta's "Team Nick" - named for her father - will be participating in TeamWalk for the 5th consecutive year and they hope to raise $5,000. The money raised from TeamWalk helps cancer patients by paying for medications, nutritional supplements, wigs and prostheses, support groups, skilled nursing visits, transportation, mini-grants, and supportive services to patients of all cancer types. Since its inception in 2000, TeamWalk has raised more than seven million dollars to help over 20,000 patients. For more on teamwalk, visit www.teamwalk.org
If you go:
When: May 18th, 2014
Where: Tsongas Center, 300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Lowell
Time: Registration opens at 7:30am
Opening Ceremonies: 8:45am
6.2 mile walk starts: 9:00am
3 mile walk starts: 10:00am
To register or donate: www.teamwalk.org
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