Ode To Davey

Ode To Davey
This is now one year since the passing of Davey Rochester.
To his wife and children, it is still a complete shock that he is no longer around. His daughters ask about him daily still. Look at all of the pictures that he took of him and them as well as his Instagram....thank goodness for that technology.
Krista, his lady, has much to cope with yet even in grief she and Lainie started “Davey’s Mission”, a foundation set up to change the low numbers of possible donors within the black community and improve them to save other black people who may face this fate.
Fact 1: If anyone is diagnosed with these types of leukemia, there is a 1 : 10,000 chance of finding a match.
Fact 2: The blood registry has about 80% of caucasian donors and the black community has less than 1%!!!! LESS THAN ONE PERCENT!
Fact 3: With more sample sizes we can save black lives. Easily.
Fact 4: By the time that anyone in the black community is diagnosed with this disease, it is already too late to do anything about saving the patient because finding a match in time is a pretty poor probability.
Fact 5: We need more samples in order to save young black lives (had to repeat).
Davey’s Mission is about saving lives. This vibrant, beautiful soul was taken from us yet his strength and legacy lives on in his family and crew. The reason for his death will not go unchallenged. We intend to save black lives because that’s what Davey would do.
The thing that hit me after Davey passed, as I became more educated in this process, is that he never stood a chance. We all fought like we believed that we could have saved him. He fought really hard too. It bothered me a bit that I did not know how futile his chances were. That is also the situation today.
If I can save a few folks by passing this information, that is truly my goal. I have no diabolical plot.
Don’t take my word, do your own research and talk about it to more educated people and decide if it is worth improving the blood registry for African decent people. I wish that I could have found Davey a match. I met his two little girls and had a visit and dinner with Krista and Lainie. I wish that there was another option for him to have survived this.
My experience is shared so the next step is on our community to figure this out.
I asked Krista’s permission to use this footage to let you all meet Davey Rochester and appreciloved his impact on his nurse, teachers, community, coworkers, class mates, idrens, sistrins...his family.
“One bright morning when my work is over, we shall fly way home”
Ites up Davey Rochester.