Specialist Marcos Corona was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2011, two years after he enlisted in the Army National Guard.
"It was just hard," said Corona's wife, Geneva Corona.
Geneva and Corona's mother become emotional when speaking about his condition.
He beat it once, but his cancer game back nine months later.
"He has a lot of ups and downs. Like for instance, right now he's in the hospital for
high fever because he had a blood infection," said Geneva.
A bone marrow stem cell transplant is the only cure. Kaiser Permanente Oncologist, Dr. Zhang says every second counts in finding a match. The best chance is a Hispanic and minorities tend to donate less.
"A lot of it is from cultural religious belief or just distrust of the system or fear," said Dr. Zhang.
It's an easy process to find out if you could be suitable donor.
"It's four swabs of the inside of your cheek and that's it. It's very simple and I mean, it could save somebody's life," said Geneva.
If you are a match, Dr. Zhang says it only takes a few hours to donate and its pain free.
"It's a lot easier than giving blood, because you would not lose any blood volume," said Dr. Zhang.
Corona's platoon sergeant and other comrades in arms are helping to form donor drives across the Valley.
"We really truly believe that if one of us is hurting, all of us are hurting, and if one of us is down, we're all down," said Sergeant Alfred Moreno.
Corona's family and friends remain hopeful they'll find a cure.
"He's out there for our country and I know there's somebody out there that's gonna help him just like he's helping others," said Corona's mother, Sally Corona.
UPCOMING DONOR DRIVES:Saturday February 16th -- 10AM-4PM
Central California Blood Center
4343 West Herndon Ave.
Wednesday February 27th -- 8AM-12PM
Kaiser Permanente @ The Farmers Market
7300 North Fresno St.
Sunday March 3rd 12PM-4PM
Porterville National Guard Armory
29 North Plano St.
Porterville
