Health, Science, Environment Fighting leukemia and racial
inequality at the same time Seven months ago, things were going
great for Kevin Weston. He was with the woman of his dreams, he
had a baby daughter and a teenage stepdaughter, and he was about
to start a prestigious journalism fellowship at Stanford
University. But then he got sick. He was diagnosed with a raging
infection and acute leukemia, a cancer of the blood. Lateefah
Simon, Kevin’s wife, recounts what came next. “We were told he
needed a bone marrow transplant to cure this cancer, and we
needed to push, and find a match. We did the searches through
the international bone marrow registries, and we did not find a
match.” It’s hard for anyone to find a bone marrow donor, but
Kevin Weston is facing even worse odds. It’s not because of the
type of his cancer or even his insurance – it’s because he’s
African-American. Most couples renew their vows after decades of
marriage. But Lateefah and Kevin were married just six months
ago, when Kevin was still