They came in droves.
People piled into a room at First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday evening to watch a video and give up a vial of blood. All of them sought to be a marrow donor for Lauren Newman.
"This is wonderful," said Alan Carter, a friend of the Newman family, who with Janice Ellis Ford organized the test.
In less than three hours, nearly 100 people had offered to be screened.
Lauren, 10, is in her third relapse of leukemia. She's had the disease for seven years. She has fought it off twice with the assistance of chemotherapy and other medical treatment. Now, physicians say she needs a bone marrow transplant because her body can't take the chemotherapy.
Lauren's dad, Lacy Newman, grew up in Greenwood. When some of his former classmates from Greenwood High School found out about Lauren's need, they went to work organizing the marrow screening.
All those vials of blood will be tested to see if there's a match for Lauren. All of the people who agreed to test Tuesday will wind up in the National Marrow Donor Program. Perhaps they'll help someone else if they don't match with Lauren.
Meanwhile, the little girl, who loves gymnastics, waits for expedited word in her room at the Children's Hospital in Dallas. It'll take about six weeks for the test results to come back.
Right now, Lauren has an infection. Physicians have given her antibiotics to help her body fight the infection.
Because her body is weak and her immune low, Lauren can't have visitors. But she keeps up through a Web site, www.caringbridge.org/visit/laurennewman1.
"Her dad pulls up the messages from folks on his Blackberry and reads them to her," Alan said.
Folks from Greenwood have found the Web site, and have offered their messages of hope for Lauren.
Her parents keep a day-by-day journal on the Web site about Lauren's condition.
On Tuesday, her dad wrote, "We have no new information on the marrow searches, but we continue to add names to the national registry through additional drives. To date we have registered over 1500 new donors in the registry, and I plan to comment on those drives in future updates. We are grateful for the large turnout today in Greenwood and thank Alan and Janice and others for all the work in making it successful."
He added, "Lauren misses her friends and extended family but loves reading your notes on the Web site. Her mother and I are extremely appreciative of the overwhelming amount of support our family is receiving through your prayers, notes and calls. Please join us in continuing to pray for her full recovery."
