Asian Week, News Report, Posted: Feb 14, 2012

 “You know what sucks? When you realize that most of your classmates from high school are doing things that they said they always wanted to do, and you are stuck looking at a wall full of pamphlets that say ‘Cancer and You’ and ‘Understanding Leukemia.’”

23-year-old Jack Chin has always been determined. Since he was in elementary school, all Jack wanted was to serve in the military for his country. West Point was the goal and sure enough, Jack made it happen despite a setback of being denied admission his senior year at Monta Vista High School. After studying at the University of California, Los Angeles for a year, Jack was admitted to West Point where he endured tough tests of his physical strength and courage—rappelling off cliffs, boxing against former infantryman and riding in tanks. After a year at West Point and a couple failed gymnastics classes (which he now laughs about), Jack decided to withdraw and return to UCLA, but not without a few powerful life lessons under his belt.

 
Fast forward to summer 2011. With just one year left before graduation at UCLA, Jack was looking forward to a good summer. He had just secured a prestigious and very competitive finance internship at Visa in San Francisco. He had signed up for martial arts classes and was living at home for the summer in Cupertino before heading back to UCLA to finish up his degree studying Economics and Accounting.

But Jack had begun to feel some leg pain prior to the internship and hadn’t thought much of it. Not wanting to give a bad impression, he gritted his teeth and continued going to work on painkillers. But six weeks into the program, the pain was starting to take its toll—Jack could not move his legs or stand up. In July, he finally received MRI scans and a blood test. The diagnosis? Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He was rushed to the hospital that same day where he stayed for a month.

After several months of treatment, pills and chemotherapy, Jack’s doctors have come to a disturbing conclusion: Jack needs a bone marrow transplant or he will die. His family’s bone marrow and even the bone marrow of his twin brother Jim have not been a match.

Read more here.