Kristin Taylor truly believes everyone has the power to change the world for the better, and she hopes to convince hundreds of Puebloans to do it the same way she did.

Taylor, 36, didn't hesitate 13 months ago when she got a call asking her to donate bone marrow for a complete stranger somewhere in the United States.

The woman was 58 and dying of leukemia. Taylor's own mom was 58 at the time, too.

"I knew I sure wasn't ready to say goodbye to my mom. I didn't hesitate to say yes," Taylor said. The mental connection involving her mom created an emotional connection with the stranger who needed her marrow, she said.

Taylor still hasn't met the woman who received her bone marrow in September, but she gets regular updates on the woman's condition from the National Marrow Donor Program, the parent organization of the Colorado Marrow Donor Program.

"She's alive, and she's doing well. After a year, the anonymity requirement will be dropped if we both agree," Taylor said.

While she awaits another call, Taylor hopes to convince other Puebloans to add their names to the national registry, which is sorely lacking volunteer donors of Hispanic heritage and other ethnic minority groups.

To that end, Taylor has organized a bone marrow donor drive for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, 100 E. Abriendo Ave. The event is co-sponsored by Bonfils Blood Center as part of Be the Match, a national campaign to broaden the donor registry.

"Pueblo's a melting pot of ethnicities, and this city could make a humongous difference in the registry," Taylor said, adding, "They are desperately seeking people of different ethnic backgrounds to help those with leukemia, aplastic anemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, immune deficiency disorders and some types of breast and ovarian cancers."

Taylor said her donation process involved having a complete physical and chest X-rays at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center's Roger Dorcy Cancer Center before being injected with a drug that spurs rapid development of stem cells in the blood.

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Woman donated bone marrow, hopes others will do the same

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