HOT 99.5 was renamed Carly 99.5 Thursday afternoon to raise awareness for a 16-year-old with the odds stacked against her.
In early June, Carly Nguyen, a senior at Elizabeth Seton High School, learned she has acute myelogenous leukemia, and needs a bone marrow transplant, as News4 reported.
But finding a donor has been difficult, in part because Nguyen is Vietnamese, and Asian Americans are critically underrepresented in national bone marrow registries, according to the Asian-American Donor Program.
Her school united to help find a matching donor and asked the community for help. The DMV’s most-listened-to radio station answered.
In addition to changing its name, the station hosted cheek swabs outside the iHeartRadio building at 1801 Rockville Pike Thursday from 3 - 7 p.m. where you can find out if you are Carly’s match.
Vietnamese and Asian donors between the ages of 18 and 55 are strongly encouraged to participate, but everyone is welcome.
If you can’t make it, but would still like to be swabbed, visit DeleteBloodCancer.org, or visit bethematch.org to become a donor.
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Follow the hashtag #SetonStrong on Twitter to stay up-to-date with Carly.
