A Perfect Match (Working Title)
There's nothing like mentioning ya got cancer to kill a conversation
-Erica Murray blog entry, Jan 29, 2008

Through equal doses of laughter and tears, A Perfect Match (working title) is a documentary-in-progress that follows the transformative journey of a vibrant and young multiracial woman living with life-threatening leukemia, whose hope for survival is a ‘perfect’ bone marrow match from a volunteer donor.

This documentary follows Erica and her sister Jaci. Erica becomes actively engaged, encouraging minority youth to get on the marrow registry, while her rollercoaster journey takes Jaci's life through an unexpected turn. The zest with which Erica lives each day, the candor with which she confronts mortality, and the humor with which she faces each difficult moment, brings us on a deeply personal and inspiring journey.

Summary and Background

Each year, leukemia strikes about 50,000 people in the United States. Leukemia is a cancer that originates in the bone marrow, and as many as 16,000 leukemia patients diagnosed each year require a bone marrow transplant to survive.

The donation must be made by a volunteer donor with similar inherited tissue type, and thus patients are most likely to match someone within their family or of their same race or ethnicity. 70% of patients needing a transplant do not have a family member who is a match. These patients must turn to an international marrow donor registry for a life-saving match. Overall, minorities are underrepresented on the registry, due to lack of awareness about the donation process, a high level of misperception on donation, and general skepticism of the medical establishment. Because of this, the current odds for a minority patient to find a matching unrelated donor is close to 1 in a million.

Abroad in China, about four million people are waiting for life-saving bone marrow transplants, but there are only 30,000 registered blood donors in China, and 80,000 registrants of Chinese decent in the United States.

Confronting these bleak statistics is Erica Murray, a Eurasian (half Chinese and half Caucasian) young woman diagnosed with leukemia, yet bursting with the desire to live. Through the portrayal of Erica's journey with leukemia, the documentary aims to accomplish a few goals:

• To bring compassion to the unjustifiable struggle that leukemia patients endure, through an intimate connection with a lovable young woman.
• To bring awareness to the desperate need for bone marrow donation, and compel people, especially of mixed race and minority descent, to register to donate.
• To dispel the myth that donation is painful or dangerous. Rather, that it is an easy and safe process in which donors can choose to donate stem cells directly from their veins.
• To spark discussion on our own actions and existence in this world as we reflect on our own mortality.

I met Erica during her numerous outreach efforts to locate a donor: through her blog, through Youtube, at events and as a guest on ABC7. Between hospital visits and chemotherapy, she had been thrust into the necessary position of advocating for her own cause, for her own survival. What grabbed my attention was a Youtube video that generated over 38,000 hits. In it, Erica and her sister sing to the tune of Barenaked Ladies' "If I had a Million Dollars", with the words "If I had a Real Good Donor". Their song is filled with wit, smiles and plans for the future, but underneath is a searing urgency.

I had two reactions viewing this: 1) We look like sisters. I'm Eurasian too. I could be the match she needs and 2) Why is she the one doing this? Does every patient needing a bone marrow transplant launch his/her own outreach campaign? I found that answer in numerous other personal websites, each patient or family pleading with the world to register to donate and become that life-saving match.

One week later, with a crew of three, we filmed Erica's first interview. Soon after, Erica became a co-producer, invested in telling her story for the benefit of all leukemia patients in her situation. After almost a year of filming, Erica passed away in December of 2008, devastating those of us who had come to love her.

The more than 30 hours of footage that remains holds a deeply personal and inspiring journey. The zest with which she lived each day, the candor with which she confronted mortality, the humor with which she faced each difficult moment, and the compassion she shared with those she loved, will inform and inspire her documentary.

The Crew

Naomi Ture
Director / Producer / Videography

Chris Faber
Co-Producer / Editor

Erica Murray
Co-Producer

Nick Davila
Director of Photography

Judy Murray
Videography

Roman Chiu, Renu Kumar, Andrew Castillo
Production Assistance

Ravi Patel, Rafael Alcala
Edit Assistance