Patricia Lykos, District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
June 22, 2009
Public Information Office
Donna Hawkins
George Flynn
713-755-3320
Commissioners Declare Anh Reiss Day Tuesday:
DA Dedicates Friday Donor Match Drive to County Honoree
Houston, TX – Commissioners Court on Tuesday will declare “Anh Reiss Day for Harris County,” in preparation for the Friday Donor Registration Drive to search for a life-saving transplant match for the Houston physician and surgeon.
The 43-year-old Reiss and her husband, Assistant District Attorney Josh Reiss, have been seeking a qualified bone marrow donor since early this year. That’s when they discovered she had a lethal form of leukemia known as MDS -- myelodysplastic syndrome.
There are currently no suitable candidates among national donor registration databases. The Reiss family has launched a new campaign to enlist more potential donors for her and other MDS victims who face death without the transplants.
County Judge Ed Emmett and Commissioners Court will recognize the registration efforts at their next session, with a proclamation declaring Anh Reiss Day. It will be presented to the couple at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the ninth floor conference room of the County Administration Building, 1001 Preston Ave.
The general public and county employees are invited to the Donor Registration Drive, which is hosted by District Attorney Patricia Lykos. It will be held Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the second floor cafeteria of the County Criminal Courts Building at 1201 Franklin St.
Registration is a simple process – participants only need to complete a form and do cheek swabs. The event will be coordinated by the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and Jane Waters, Chief of the District Attorney’s Family Criminal Law Division, where Josh Reiss is a prosecutor.
Anh Nguyen Reiss is a native of Vietnam who fled to the U.S. with her family in 1975, in the final days of the Vietnam War. Background information on her struggle and the registration campaign is available at www.teamanh.org .
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Last Updated: 6/22/2009