Shannon Tavarez, the 11-year-old former star of Disney's Lion King, got 50 Cent's attention when she was diagnosed with leukemia. A distant cousin of the rapper, 50 Cent did everything he could to help the former Broadway star and has since made it his mission to help leukemia patients nationwide find a bone marrow match.
Two weeks ago, 50 Cent and Tony Yayo registered with DKMS and filmed a PSA showing their fans how easy it is to "Get Swabbed to Save a Life." As a continuation of his on-going philanthropic efforts, the rapper hosted a DKMS bone marrow drive at the "50 Cent" Jackson Community Garden in Queens earlier this week where he filmed a second PSA with Tony Yayo urging people to register. Check it out at www.GetSwabbed.org.
Since he began working with DKMS two weeks ago, 50 Cent has registered nearly 4,000 potentially life- saving donors with the organization.
"I think when people hear about donating bone marrow, the whole process seems complicated and a lot more difficult than it would be to actually to save someone's life," said 50 Cent. "I think people would be interested [to donate], especially if they saw me do it, because [fans] look at every blog I put up. So one of the things I'm interested in is being a donor at some point. 70% of the people don't have a match in their family so they have to look outside. You need the help of someone you don't know."
Readers are encouraged to follow in 50's footsteps and sign up for a DKMS registration kit online at www.GetSwabbed.org.
Article reprinted with permission from www.BroadwayWorld.com
