Bone-Marrow Drive in November in Memory of ‘Lion King’ Star Tavarez
Tavarez, who starred in the Broadway production of “The Lion King” as Young Nala, was in need of a bone-marrow transplant, but a perfect match was not found despite a drive being held in July.
A bone marrow donor registry drive is being organized in memory of Shannon Tavarez, the 11-year-old Broadway actress who died of leukemia at Cohen’s Children Medical Center in New Hyde Park in November, according to the Associated Press.
The drive will be held by DKMS, a bone marrow transplant center, on Sunday at the Harlem School of the Arts from 1-7 p.m. Registry requires a swab of the inner cheek.
She received an umbilical-cord transplant in August in lieu of the bone-marrow transplant.
Tavarez’s biracial ancestry — her mother is African-American and her father Dominican — complicated the search for a perfect match because there are typically fewer registered donors from minority groups.
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