A blog post dated January 1, 2013 confirmed that Natalie Curry, one of the first patients ever to receive and benefit from a cord blood transplant, has passed away peacefully on August 30, 2012.
Her family reported:
Her battle with cancer that she was blogging about turned into non-specific interstitial lung disease. To the best of our knowledge, cancer did not play any part of this dreaded condition, but was possibly caused by the side effects of her procedure to remove the esophageal cancer. During her lifetime there were many medical battles, all of which she won….with the exception of this.
The popular book and movie My Sister’s Keeper is a reflection of Natalie’s true story. She was born with a fatal blood disorder called Fanconis Anemia, and without a bone marrow transplant from a perfect HLA match, would likely die before the age of ten. On her parent’s third attempt, they gave birth to Natalie’s sister, Emily, who was a perfect HLA match, and used her cord blood to save Natalie’s life.
Natalie Curry devoted her life to raising awareness about the benefits of cord blood preservation, from spreading the word through her popular blog to teaming up with The Cozy Candle Company to raise proceeds for cord blood education.
Rest in Peace, Natalie. May you go down in history as a pioneer for the cause of umbilical cord blood banking and the promise of stem cell research.