North Vancouver mother Erica Harris needs a bone-marrow transplant to survive, and her family is urging people to become donors to try to save her life, as well as the lives of other patients desperately seeking a match.

Harley Harris hopes his plea to join the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) online donation registry will resonate across B.C. and beyond.

The message is the importance of how getting on this registry can save lives. Can save Ericas life. Can save friends, family, loved ones, said Harris, who has two young sons with his wife, Erica.

Every one can save a mothers life, can bring a mother home to her children. Our boys are two and five. They need their mama.

Erica Harris is one of 211 B.C. residents waiting for stem cell and bone marrow donations; there are 977 waiting across Canada.

Harris, a chiropractor, was diagnosed less than a month ago with acute myeloid leukemia. Her first chemotherapy treatment didnt work and she is now pegged as high risk. She is undergoing more aggressive chemotherapy, which must be followed by an urgent bone marrow transplant, Harley Harris said.

His wifes brother was not a match, and so far, a search of the 11 million names on all the international bone marrow donor registries has not found a suitable candidate.

Canadians can register online with CBSs OneMatch registry at onematch.ca.

In the majority of cases, there is no pain or long-term recovery for the donors, said Dr. John Shepherd, director of the Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program of BC, located at Vancouver General Hospital.

Last year, donations were collected from more than 200 people in B.C. using a minimally invasive procedure to collect stem cells from the blood with a needle.

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North Vancouver family urges people to become bone marrow donors

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