Kazumi Schmidgall enjoys playing the piano, hiking and kickboxing. The Shin-Issei high school math teacher had such an active and healthy life, she could hardly believe it when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and a lung infection in September. Schmidgall, who is in her 60s, is working with Asian American Donor Program, which […]
Nikkei’s search for blood stem cell donor hampered by the pandemic
Artist and activist traci kato-kiriyama overcomes breast cancer
LOS ANGELES — traci kato-kiriyama, director and co-founder of Tuesday Night Project, which presents Tuesday Night Café, the longest-running Asian American-produced public arts series in the country, was extremely busy as an award-winning artist, community organizer and cultural producer when she faced a big jolt — she was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2016. […]
ELUSIVE DREAMS: Proud hapa finds marrow match but loses cancer battle
After enduring a year’s worth of treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Paul Ota decided to fly home to the Bay Area to pick up his universal passport. A universal passport is a document that symbolizes a person’s goal to travel the world. He had been on the waitlist for one since before he was diagnosed with […]
Taking a Stand: Despite battling cancer, Sen. Hirono shines in national spotlight
Editor’s Note: Mazie Hirono made history in 2012, when she became the first elected female senator from Hawai‘i, the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first U.S. senator born in Japan, and the nation’s first Buddhist senator. In the middle of a turbulent political year, she announced in May 2017 that […]
DUAL BATTLES: Mountain View City Councilwoman fought cancer during campaign
Mountain View City Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga discovered her competitive streak while practicing kendo as a middle schooler. “I’m of the belief that the best offense is a strong defense,†she says, recalling how the martial art taught her to “read†her opponents and anticipate their next move. As an adult, she took that outlook to […]
Bone marrow match needed to help save reverend’s life
Japanese American bone marrow donors are needed to potentially save the life of the Rev. Shuichi “Thomas†Kurai, who was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia-lymphoma in January. As is the case with most minority populations, the potential Japanese American donor count in the national marrow and stem cell registry is extremely low. According to Mylanah Yolangco, […]
Breast cancer rates among Asian Americans on rise
Unlike other ethnic groups, Asian Americans experienced an increase in breast cancer rates over the last 15 years, according to researchers at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC). Breast cancer incidents remained stable or declined in most U.S. populations over the same period. In the first study to break down statistics by Asian American […]
Mixed-heritage Japanese Americans seek bone marrow matches
Last January, Paul Ota felt a pain in his chest. Maybe, he thought, he had pulled a muscle at the gym. Upon visiting his doctor, though, Ota was diagnosed with advanced non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that can start in a person’s lymph nodes. After six rounds of chemotherapy and surgery to destroy the […]
Cancer survivor celebrates ‘new found freedom’
Earlier this month, 10-year-old Baylor Nihei Fredrickson’s family received some long-anticipated news: the cancer survivor learned that he could discontinue taking his medications and no longer had to follow numerous multiple safety precautions that had been part of his life since he returned home from a transplant more than a year and a half ago. Back in […]
Overcoming adversity with tenacity: Cancer survivor Patricia Fujii, 84, lives life to its fullest
Despite winning eight gold medals in this year’s Idaho Senior Games, 84-year-old Patricia Fujii does not consider herself an athlete. According to the octogenarian sprinter, the difference between her and the athletes she competed against at the National Senior Games is that the other higher-placing athletes train harder. “I don’t have time to hire a […]
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