Online video is such a powerful medium to spread the word on just about anything. One area where it is incredibly powerful and useful is in bringing awareness to causes and projects that bring change to one life or millions of lives. Today, I stumbled upon a video that deeply moved me. It was of Michelle Maykin, a 26-year old UC Berkeley graduate, class of 2004, and San Francisco Bay Area resident who is fighting for her life.

A little over a year ago Maykin, an energetic, active and vibrant young woman who enjoys mountain bike riding, rock climbing and snowboarding, set out on a bike ride. As she was riding on the bridge crossing the San Francisco Bay she found herself falling behind, feeling fatigued and experiencing shortness of breath. For someone who had always been healthy and active, this was uncharacteristic and of concern. Then a short time later, Maykin and friends went snowboarding and both she and her friends noticed that she was struggling to keep up. After returning from her snowboarding trip, Maykin visited the doctor. On February 27, 2007, Maykin found the answer to why she had been so fatigued and was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a blood cancer.

Over the course of a year, Maykin underwent five rounds of chemotherapy, which put her cancer in remission. She regained her strength and in February of 2008 she returned to work at KPMG in San Francisco. After a year of fighting for her life to regain her health, she was working again and began to live the life she once had before the cancer. And then in April 2008, two months after returning to work, she began experiencing the same symptoms that she had prior to her diagnosis. On May 7, 2008, her worse fear became true when Maykin's oncologist informed her that her cancer had returned. To compound the already devastating news, Maykin also learned that an MRI showed a mass on her brain. Michelle Maykin, once again, is in the fight of her life to save her life. But she can't do it alone. She needs me, you and all of us to do our part to help her and so many others who are in need of a donor. Thanks to her family and friends, Project Michelle was created. According to the Project Michelle Web site, it started as a support project for Michelle Maykin and has since grown into a nationwide grassroots initiative dedicated to increasing the deficient number of minority bone marrow donor registrants in the national registry. The U.S. Marrow Registry has 6.6 million registered donors. There are 10 million registered donors worldwide, with 506,068 of them being Asian American. Ethnic minorities only have a 30 percent chance of finding a donor, whereas whites have up to an 85 percent chance. There is a shortage of Asian, Asian American and other ethnic minority donors worldwide, which is why it is important to spread the word and help close the gap on the shortage of ethnic minority registered donors. In mid-May, Project Michelle organizers set out to register 15,000 new potential donors in five weeks to help Michelle, and others, find a donor match. The five-week donor registration drive resulted in 250 drives in 12 cities that registered 9,000 potential donors and 3,000 online requests for home registration kits. Project Michelle is still 4,661 shy of its goal of 15,000 new registered donors. Unfortunately, of the 10,339 new registrants, none are a match for Maykin. Project Michelle, and its many volunteers, is continuing to conduct drives across the nation to reach its goal of signing up 15,000 potential donors to find a match for Maykin and others in need of a donor match. Become a hero and possibly save someone’s life. The process to become a registered donor is simple and only takes about ten minutes. No needles involved. Simply have the inside of your cheek swabbed with a cotton swab. If you are a match, in many cases, the transplant can be done through blood. If you'd like to help and see if you're a match, check out the Project Michelle calendar to find a donor drive near year. And for more information about Michelle Maykin, Project Michelle and on AML, visit Project Michelle. You can also read comments and view videos of Michelle and others at the Project Michelle Stickam site.