Emotional Reunion for Teen Beating Leukemia

In 2004, Kelly and Kenny Orth adopted a baby girl from Guangdong Province, China whom they named Mesa, after a town in their home state of Arizona. Mesa grew up along with her two older brothers and her younger sister in Arizona. Kenny said that growing up, Mesa was his little buddy, always holding his hand.
As Mesa got older, she developed a talent for art, particularly painting and pottery. During her sophomore year of high school, Mesa began to experience various symptoms such as joint pain, dizziness, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Doctors weren’t sure what the cause was, so they ordered a few tests and pre-lab work. The results of the labs showed that Mesa had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. They knew that ethnicity plays a role in finding a donor, and were worried that because of the lack of diversity in the donor pool, it would be harder for Mesa to find a match. They had to hope that somewhere out there, her perfect donor existed.

Luckily, a few years prior Benjamin Qiu had registered as a donor with DKMS. He didn’t know much about bone marrow donation at the time, but he was willing to help.

On October 21st, 2023 DKMS flew Ben and his soon-to-be wife Ming to Mesa, AZ to meet Mesa and the Orth family for the first time. They met at Mesa’s grandfather’s home on a sunny Saturday morning in a reunion filled with hugs and lots of tears.

Mesa’s mom Kelly thanked Ben, saying that without him they would be remembering four years of her passing instead of celebrating her fourth re-birthday. Mesa’s grandfather gave Ben a painting of a bee that Mesa had done in the hospital, which had become a family symbol of her fight against cancer. Afterward, Ben and Ming spent the weekend with the Orth family. Traveling to see Sedona and spending time getting to know one another while creating a bond that will last a lifetime.
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DKMS: We Delete Blood Cancer.
DKMS is an international not for profit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders by: creating awareness; recruiting bone marrow donors to provide a second chance at life; raising funds to match donor registration costs; supporting the improvement of therapies through research; and supporting patients from day one of their diagnoses.

Register to be a Stem Cell Donor here:
https://www.dkms.org/register-now

Learn more about DKMS here:
https://www.dkms.org/about

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