SAN FRANCISCO, CA – On any given day, 6,000 people are looking for a life-saving bone marrow donor. Only 3% of all Asian and Pacific Americans are currently registered.

Michelle Maykin, a 26-year old acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient, is facing those odds. She is battling a life-threatening disease and must find a bone marrow donor match by June 21st. In light of Michelle’s diagnosis, her family and friends have banned together to launch a nationwide recruitment campaign, Project Michelle, to raise awareness of the dire donor shortage specifically within the Asian and Pacific American community. Their goal is to enroll 15,000 donors into the national registry in hopes of finding acute myeloid leukemia patients like Michelle a bone marrow match and improve their odds of survival.

Hyphen magazine and Chinese for Affirmative Action have collaborated with Project Michelle and the Asian American Donor Program to bring a bone marrow drive to San Francisco to increase the registration numbers of Asian and Pacific Americans.

“Six thousand patients like Michelle are currently looking for a bone marrow match to threat their illnesses,” stated Lisa Lee, Publisher of Hyphen magazine. “The need for Asian and Pacific American donors is especially critical. Please help us reach out to the 14 million unregistered individuals out there to let them know how they can get registered and save a life.”

WHAT: In-n-Out: The Drive to Increase Asian and Pacific American Registered Bone Marrow Donors

WHEN: Saturday, June 14, 2008, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

WHERE: Chinese for Affirmative Action, Community Room, 17 Walter U. Lum Place, San Francisco, CA 94108

COST: Free for all partial and full ethnic minorities (Asian and Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic/Chicano, and African American) and $25 registration fee for all non-minorities.

For more information on Project Michelle and the Asian American Donor Program, visit http://projectmichelle.com and www.aadp.org.