A Mother's Love Finds Marrow Donor

China Trips Pay Off; Kailee Wells' Transplant Imminent

(CBS)  "When I first went to Beijing," Linda says, "I had the address of the Red Cross and..."

"And a phone number and a name," Owen interjected, laughing.

Linda made two trips to China, spreading the word about her daughter. Donor registration in China shot up, but no luck. They tried one transplant with a less than perfect match, but it failed.

"And (Kailee) was gritting her teeth and biting her lips and trying to endure this," Owen remembers. "She was saying, 'I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.' "

Time was running out, and Linda and Owen were packed for another trip to China.

The day before they were to leave, Margolis received an urgent page from a colleague.

"I called her,'" he says, "and she said, 'Are you sitting down?' And I said, 'Yes.' And she said, 'We have a donor for Kailee.' "

The miracle had finally arrived, in the form of Wang lin, a 28-year-old Chinese doctor who turned out to be a near perfect match for Kailee.

In mid-October, he traveled to Beijing to under go his part of the procedure.

"I wish little Kailee can recover soon," he told us, in Chinese. "I hope the blood cells I donated can be like a seed of hope."

A world away, doctors have been preparing Kailee for the physically grueling procedure.

And now, with her best, and possibly last chance, Kailee is ready to fight.

Linda says, when she told Kailee she could have another transplant, she emphasized that it would only happen if Kailee wanted it to, and Kailee responded, 'I'm ready. Let's go.' "

Kailee goes in for her transplant Monday.

On Thursday, The Early Show will report on how she does and, in coordination with the National Marrow Donor Program and the New York Blood Center, will hold a marrow registry drive on the plaza at the General Motors building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The drive will take place from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. There's no fee to register.

The National Marrow Donor Program says, "You could be the missing link.

"Each year, more than 35,000 children and adults develop life-threatening diseases of the blood or immune system, including leukemia, lymphoma and genetic diseases. For many of these individuals, the best hope for a cure is a marrow or blood cell transplant from a volunteer donor or donated cord blood unit. The New York Blood Center and the National Marrow Donor Program are sponsoring a donor drive that asks you to be that person. A marrow or cord blood transplant requires careful matching of patient and donor tissue types. Although a family member is the most desirable donor, 70 percent of patients do not have a matched family donor."

To locate a donor center near you, click here.