Help for Woman With Rare Disorders
American Legion Post 419 of Amagansett will host a casino and karaoke fund-raiser at Legion Hall on Friday, March 9, for a young woman who is facing rare blood disorders and a long regimen of treatment and recovery.
In August, Jessica Greene, who is 26, was diagnosed with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a life-threatening disease characterized by the destruction of red blood cells, blood clots, and impaired bone marrow function, as well as aplastic anemia, which causes deficiency of all three blood-cell types.
Ms. Greene’s parents are Rob Greene Jr. of Springs, a member of the American Legion, and Gina Mulhern of Montauk. Ms. Greene, who lives in Manhattan, needs a bone marrow transplant, according to her aunt, Lisa Mulhern Larsen of East Hampton, and she recently received word that four, and possibly five, donors had been identified, and all were willing to donate.
Treatment, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, involves embryo cryopreservation, a procedure that will allow her to have children in the future, followed by radiation and chemotherapy.
The transplant will require six to eight weeks of hospitalization and Ms. Greene will then be quarantined for two months needing around-the-clock care. She will be unable to work for approximately six months as her immune system recovers.
Disability insurance will cover only a portion of the many expenses to come. Neither the embryo cryopreservation nor the donor search process, for example, is covered.
A campaign on the YouCaring website had raised more than $107,000 through Feb. 28. The campaign, Support Jess Greene in Her Fight Against PNH and SAA, is at youcaring.com/jessgreene.
The fund-raiser at Legion Hall will include food, a 50-50 raffle, Chinese and silent auctions, and a cash bar. Tickets are $30 and will be available at the door.
Ms. Greene has posted regular updates on Facebook. “There are no words to express how grateful I am to have such an amazing support system, my boyfriend, my family, friends, co-workers, and everyone in between,” she wrote on Jan. 24. “This is just the beginning of my journey but the amount of support and love I have received in just this past week, it’s honestly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed. I can’t thank every single person enough.”
“To my EH/AMG/MTK family, when things get tough I know that our community comes together and it’s times like these I really can’t imagine growing up anywhere else.”
“The world does still have such incredible people in it,” she wrote, “and I couldn’t be more grateful to these people . . . but most of all, I am just so thankful, for everything.”