The Cook County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday hosted a bone marrow drive to help a veteran sergeant diagnosed last year with Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma.
Sgt. Encarnacion Roldan, a member of the force for 28 years, found out about his rare illness in September 2012 and is in need of a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
Of the approximately nine million people in the registry, less than one million are ethnic minorities, making it all the more difficult for Roldan, who is Hispanic, to find a match. To aid in the search, Sheriff Tom Dart asked the roughly 7,000 employees in his offices across the county to help find a match for Roldan.
"The bone marrow transplant will put the stem cells in my body that will kill the cancer once and for all," said Roldan.
The drive registry was open to the public and took place at three different locations: from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at Daley Center, 50 W. Washington St.; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse, 26th and California; and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Cook County Sheriff Department Police Headquarters, 1401 S. Maybrook Dr.
Approximately 70 percent of those who need a transplant do not have a matching donor in the family, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.
