Rihanna Reaches Out to Nigerian Winter Olympics Hopeful
Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 11:22 PMBy Louisa Olubukola Kinoshi
After graduating from Yale Law School in 2009, Seun Adebiyi is attempting to compete as Nigeria’s first Winter Olympics delegate as a skeleton sledder. Seun swam competitively for years, but missed qualifying for the 2004 Summer Games by a tenth of a second in the 50-meter freestyle. However, while preparing for the Winter Olympics, he found a lump in his groin. Further tests revealed he has stem cell leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma, two aggressive forms of cancer that ultimately require a bone marrow transplant.
According to Perez Hilton, Seun wrote a letter to pop star Rihanna asking for her help finding a bone marrow donor. Along with Greys Anatomy star Justin Chambers, Rihanna has joined his mission to recruit 10,000 donors through DKMS Americas, the world’s largest bone marrow donor center. “Leukemia interrupted Seun’s dream of being the first Nigerian in the Winter Olympics,” says Rihanna. “But together we can help him make his dream come true! We need to find him a bone marrow donor! Please sign up with DKMS!”
Seun and his mother, an Oxford educated professor were in Nigeria in December to hold the first-ever bone marrow drive. Seun has taken a leave from his job at Goldman Sachs which donated $10,000 for the drive and moved to New York City, where he is undergoing chemotherapy treatments at Memorial Sloane Kettering — and waiting for a donor.
For those in the United States and would like to help Seun and many other people of African descent in his position please visit dkmsamericas.org for a registration kit or donate $65 to offset the cost of the kits. Please follow Seun’s journey at http://nigeria2014.wordpress.com/.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtx00Wa6i1w[/youtube]
Tags: Bone marrow registration, DKMS, Justin Chambers, Louisa Kinoshi, Nigeria 2014, Nigeria olympics, Rhianna, Seun Adebiyi, Winter olympics
Always saddens me when i hear about these stories but the problem is anaemics cant donate!!! So i’m not allowed to give blood or become a bone marrow donor
I wonder with Anaemia been rife in black african people, if that crosses off a lot of us off…
Please help people – its a global database and black people always come to the fore for having really low chance of survival – we’ll pray for him but lets be practical too…
God bless
Please
God is with u Seun, u will find a donor in Jesus name, Amen.
wot does it take to b a donor. i’m O+
pls bella, let us know the details…If my marrow is compatible, I wouldn’t mind donating.
pls respond asap.
regards,
this is really sad! i know the uk has several programmes on this. is his family looking this way too? please keep us posted.
Seun, I shall pray for your healing and success in your chosen endeavour. May God be with you in Jesus name, Amen [Jesus is all I have].