50 Cent, Rihanna & Leighton Meester Team Up To Help Baby In Need Of Bone Marrow Transplant

Music stars Rihanna and 50 Cent and "Gossip Girl" actress Leighton Meester have lent their mouths to a campaign to find a donor for an upper West Side infant in desperate need of a bone-marrow transplant.
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The celebrity do-gooders recently had their cheeks swabbed to see if they're a match for 1-year-old Ayelet Galena, who suffers from dyskeratosis congenita, a rare life-threatening disease.

The hope is that their fans will follow suit and get tested.

"It started out with Rihanna tweeting, and then I asked 50 Cent, he has helped us before," said Katharina Harf, the COO of DKMS, a German bone-marrow donor center.

"And then [Ayelet's] dad got all these other artists and bands aboard."

The infant's father, Seth Galena, an account supervisor at VLM Advertising, got rapper Pharrell and rock band Linkin Park involved in mid-May.

But without a bone-marrow donor, Ayelet won't survive.

Ayelet Galena

"We went into action once we got the diagnosis because we knew she'd need the transplant," said Ayelet's mother, Hindy Poupko.

Now Ayelet's family is anxiously awaiting a match. Four out of 10 people rely on donors who are strangers, since relatives are rarely a match for bone marrow, according to DKMS.

Siblings are the best possibility, with a 25% matching rate, but Ayelet is an only child.

If Ayelet receives a transplant, she has a 60% chance of surviving.

Other than an IV she needs for nutrition, Ayelet is like most kids her age.

"Despite all of this, she is a very happy and playful child," said Poupko. "She is like every other child, just tinier."

The family and DKMS have organized a donor-registration drive for Sunday. It will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center at 334 Amsterdam Ave.

Source: NY Daily News