50 Cent Hosts Donor Drive For Leukaemia Sufferer

17 August 2010

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50 Cent took time out of his busy work schedule this weekend to host a donor drive in New York for little leukaemia sufferer and Broadway star Shannon Tavarez.

Tavarez, who played the young Nala in hit musical The Lion King, was diagnosed with Acute Leukaemia in April and is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant to survive.

The In Da Club hitmaker, real name Curtis Jackson, threw his support behind the 11 year old's search for a match earlier this month when he and his G-Unit bandmate Tony Yayo both registered as potential donors.

50 Cent decided to step up efforts to raise awareness about the cause by teaming up with DKMS, the largest bone marrow donor centre in the world, to hold a donor drive for the youngster at his Curtis Jackson Community Garden in Jamaica, Queens as part of his work with his charity, the G-Unity Foundation.

His fame helped to draw in the crowds - a record 4,000 people signed up and registered as donors in just two days! He said, "A lot of kids don't have donors in their families, so they have to look to strangers to be the donor for them."

Tavarez is due to undergo an critical umbilical-cord blood transplant on Tuesday, which could be the key to saving her life.  Alicia Keys and Rihanna have also been urging their fans to join the cause and register as potential donors.