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“In 1955, Sadako Sasaki was hospitalized with leukemia, the result of radiation poisoning from the atom bombing of Hiroshima. An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. Sadako had finished 644 cranes when she passed.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Asian American Donor Program. It all started with a search to find matching stem cell donors for two friends, Amanda Chiang and Judith Jang Berkoltz, at that time only 123 Asian donors were listed on the National Registry.
AADP is dedicated to diversifying the Be The Match Registry and helping patients find their life-saving donor. Through our efforts, we have been successful in registering over 262,000 stem cell donors for the AAPI community. To date, AADP has helped save the lives of 600 patients.[1]
This year has been challenging, especially for blood cancer patients. Join us for a night of celebrating and giving in honor of all the patients who passed away and are currently searching for a matching donor. YOU can help us reach 1,000 cranes!
Nicki Sun
Master of Ceremonies
Executive Producer, Creator, & Host at TechNicki Speaking. Owner and Founder at Nicki Sun Media.
Nicki Sun is an on-camera personality and content creator passionate about people, filmmaking, and technology. As the creator and host of her own talk show, “Now You Know,” Nicki has pioneered a path for independent hosts while creating a platform that spotlights Asian American and multi-ethnic communities.
She thanks the Asian American Donor Program for supporting her late father in his battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer and for being the catalyst that sparked her media career.
@nickisun | @technickispeaking
Joey Guila
Master of Ceremonies
If laughter is medicine, comedian Joey Guila has your prescription. This San Francisco natives biggest joy is to bring happiness to any event. He is a complete entertainer on stage and takes you through a journey of Old School and New School, his multicultural style of comedy hits home for all audiences.
Shin Lim
Illusionist
Shin Lim is the 2015 world FISM champion for close-up card magic and is the only person in the world to win America’s Got Talent two times.
When his oldest brother showed Shin a simple card trick, it ignited a passion in learning and practicing prestidigitation.
In a span of 4 years, he transitioned from winning major youth magic awards to winning adult magic awards recognized by esteemed magicians for his skill and performance.
A self-proclaimed “sleight of hand artist,” Lim admits that he is actually NOT a magician, nor a wizard, and has no intention of lying to the audience. His mind-boggling finger moves are so masterful that the audience is left to wonder what if their eyes have seen is truly possible.
Yul Kwon
Keynote Speaker
Yul Kwon is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: Cook Islands and the series’ first Asian-American winner. He later competed on Survivor: Winners at War.
Kwon’s professional career spanned a variety of roles across technology, law, business, and government. He became passionate about creating awareness for more minority marrow donors in the U.S. after launching a major search to find a match for his best friend, Evan Chen, who was diagnosed with leukemia, but ultimately succumbed to the disease.
Kwon is a member of the Washington, D.C. and California State Bar Associations. He is also a member of the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Dauood Naimyar
Comedian
Born with a foreign name in an American country (America), Dauood Muhammad Naimyar learned the value of assimilating at a very young age. Because of this, he tried his best to not be different but failed at every encounter. Once he embraced his eccentric point of view, he saw the humor all around him.
Dauood’s comedic perspective is shaped by the duality of his constant need to fit in, and his relentless desire to be different. His search for being relatable yet controversial has brought audiences joy for seven years–and will probably continue until he finally figures out who he is. We hope he doesn’t, ’cause bills need to be paid.
Donna Megino-Dizon
Marrow Recipient
Donna Megino-Dizon was one of the first patients the Asian American Donor Program worked with to help find a matching stem cell donor. She had her marrow transplant at Stanford Medical Hospital in December 1990, almost 30 years ago.
Megino’s parents were concerned when she started to lose weight and non-accidental bruises started to appear on her body. After rigorous tests and an exhausting physical, she was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia at the age of 9. Megino’s family contacted AADP immediately after her diagnosis and started setting up drives throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Donna is alive and thriving with her husband on the East Coast.
Sanjay Yadav
Marrow Donor
Sanjay Yadav is Donna Megino-Dizon’s donor. He received a phone call telling him he was a match within a week after he joined the Be The Match Registry through Asian American Donor Program. It is extremely rare that a matching donor would be of a different race than the patient, in this case, Donna is Filipino and Yadav is Indian.
Donna is now married and living cancer free. None of this would have happened if Yadav had not signed up as a committed donor. The two stay in touch and will be sharing their story at AADP’s 30th Anniversary Virtual Celebration.
