‘She is our everything’: Kina Grannis seeks donor for her mother with rare bone marrow cancer

January 25, 2023

Japanese American YouTuber and singer-songwriter Kina Grannis is looking for a donor for her mother, who has a rare type of bone marrow cancer.

On Tuesday, Grannis, 37, posted pictures of her and her mother on Instagram. In her post’s caption, she shared that they are looking for someone to “help save her [mother’s] life.”

my mom has a rare bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis. she needs a blood stem cell transplant as soon as possible, and in order to do that we need to find her a donor who is a perfect match. all it takes is a cheek swab to see if it could be you. … her main goal in life is to spread happiness, and she fulfills this every single day. she is our everything. she has so many more drawings to draw, people’s days to make, projects to dream up, cookies to bake, grandchildren to meet. please help us keep her here.

Grannis noted that since her mother is Japanese, she has “a better chance of matching with someone who is also Japanese.”

“If you know anyone with Japanese blood, please pass this along! (that said, her perfect match could be anyone of any race, so ideally everyone under the sun gets on the registry!),” the musician wrote.

“AAPI folks (as well as other people of color) are underrepresented in the bone marrow registry so it can be MUCH harder for them to find a match. Let’s fix this!” she continued.

Her recent post also shared details for anyone interested in helping out:

1. head to the page in my bio to get a free swab kit sent to you. swab and return asap

2. share this message far and wide! in most countries it is free and easy to register to become a bone marrow/blood stem cell donor. the more people around the world that register, the more lives will be saved. we have linked to some helpful resources on our page

3. if there’s any way you think you could help, please reach out! our brains are admittedly not at their best at the moment and we’ll take all the support we can find

Grannis has been uploading covers and original songs to YouTube since 2007.

Several of her videos have amassed millions of views, with her most popular one – a music video for her original song “Valentine,” having garnered over 23 million views.

Grannis has also collaborated with other Asian American YouTubers outside of music, such as Ryan Higa for his song “Nice Guys” and Wong Fu Productions for their short film “The Last.”

In 2018, she went viral for her cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” which was featured in Jon Chu’s hit film “Crazy Rich Asians.”

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