Effi Barry to Receive Bone Marrow Procedure

Effi Barry, the District's former first lady, is expected to begin preparations tomorrow at John Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore to undergo a rare medical treatment in her battle against leukemia.

Barry said doctors plan to extract some of her bone marrow, treat it and place it back into her body. She had been scheduled to undergo a marrow transplant next week, but the procedure was canceled after doctors discovered that her mother, Polly Harris, the intended donor, had a previously undiagnosed medical condition.

"When we learned that her mother could not be a match, and because right now there are no other donors, this is the only option, and time is critical," said Nina Hair, regional manager for the National Marrow Donor Program.

Last month, Barry, 62, who was married to former mayor Marion Barry for 14 years, began to use her battle with leukemia to campaign for more African Americans to join the registry for bone marrow transplants.

"The more people we have for testing, the more we have for matching," said Barry, who works at the D.C. Health Department. "Even though my mother was a half-match, they still had to perform additional tests. In this case we were able to identify an undisclosed health condition. She wanted so much to be a donor."

Barry said she will start chemotherapy tomorrow as an outpatient, and then wait for her white blood-cell count to stabilize before the marrow is extracted and then returned. She said the whole process, to be overseen by Richard Jones, the physician who is Johns Hopkins' director of marrow transplant, will take about two months, with about a month spent as an inpatient.

Rocky Twyman, who works with the national marrow donor program, said that a marrow drive will take place in Barry's honor Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. at Randall Recreation Center, 820 South Capitol St. SW.