Media Advisory: UCSF Picnic to Honor Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Patients
Morton Cowan, MDWHAT: UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital will celebrate children who have had bone marrow transplants and their families at the third pediatric bone marrow transplant picnic. Morning activities include roundtable discussions led by nurses, social workers and physicians on topics including caregiver stress, late on-set complications of transplant and a teen/young adult support group. An afternoon BBQ with a clown, face painting, live drumming and professional photography will follow.
WHEN:
Saturday, September 10, 2011, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(Media are invited from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. to observe group discussions and 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. for BBQ activities and interviews)
WHERE:
Marinwood Community Center
775 Miller Creek Road, San Rafael
WHO:
Pediatric bone marrow transplant patients – from infants to young adults in their 20s – and their families, physicians, nurses, social workers, child life specialists and research coordinators.
INTERVIEWS:
Interviews can be arranged with families including patients with siblings who have been donors, patients whose donors were found by the national search coordinator, and patients who have had their own stem cells transplanted.
Morton Cowan, MD, chief of the UCSF Allergy/Immunology/Blood and Marrow Transplant Division, and Biljana Horn, MD, director of the UCSF Blood and Marrow Transplant Program also will be available.
CONTACT:
Please RSVP to the UCSF News Office at 415-476-8810. On the day of picnic, contact Juliana Bunim, 415-310-8180
DETAILS:
Since the UCSF Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program was started in 1982, nearly 1000 transplants have been performed at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. In 1982, UCSF performed the first partially matched bone marrow transplant on the West Coast, using bone marrow from a parent for a child with a severe immunodeficiency disease.
Today, UCSF is a leader in special treatment options for children with primary immunodeficiency diseases, marrow failure syndromes, genetic diseases, cancers and other life-threatening illnesses.
ABOUT UCSF:
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For further information, please visit www.ucsf.edu.