International Healthcare News: Story of an expatriate campaign to save sick Korean teen
21/04/10 14:22
An expatriate Facebook campaign to secure blood donations for a sick Korean teenager did not manage to save his life, the Korea Times reported.
Jeon Yoo-woon, 19, died on Tuesday evening after losing his one-month battle against lymphoma, despite the efforts of the local expatriate community.
The Korean teenager's family were helped by Canadian expat Marie Frenette, who started an online campaign via the social networking site to secure regular blood donations from the community after it emerged that Jeon had a blood type that is very rare among Koreans.
Ms Frenette's campaign resulted in an increase of donations and saw 400 people confirm their support on Facebook and English language blogs.
"The effort of the expatriate community helped him get more blood than they ever would have," Ms Frenette said of the teenager's family.
"Because of our efforts he could get one pack of blood a day, but he needed two packs. I feel like he never had a chance to battle the cancer, he was just fighting to get enough blood," she told the newspaper.
Messages have been pouring in to the Facebook campaign page to pay tribute to the teenager.
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