'Lion King' star, 11, dies of leukemia

Shannon Tavarez, 11, was a Broadway star, playing the Young Nala in the musical "The Lion King," but her greatest legacy may be the 10,000 people she inspired to become potential bone-marrow donors.

Tavarez, a Queens native, was forced to quit the show in April after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Her doctors were unable to find a bone-marrow transplant match for the young actress, who was black and Hispanic. Only about 3 percent of registered bone-marrow donors are multiple race, according to the nonprofit National Bone Marrow Program.

Tavarez died Monday at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park.

"What a loss. There are no words to describe it," said her oncologist at Cohen Children's, Dr. Lawrence Wolfe. "All children are precious, but she was a performer and she performed all the time, and gave much more than she ever took."

Shannon's search for a donor touched fellow cast members, who held bone-marrow donor registration drives for her in Manhattan. Another was held in Port Jefferson for her and another leukemia sufferer. Singers Alicia Keys and Rihanna joined in the donor search.

Randy Donaldson, a producer and former cast member in "The Lion King" touring company, was among about 400 people who last July got their cheeks swabbed at St. Malachy's The Actors' Chapel in Manhattan to see if they were possible donors.

"I couldn't even fathom what she was going through," Donaldson said.

Donaldson said he got about 50 others, most of them cast members for a play he was producing off Broadway, "Falling for Eve," to take swab tests.

"Because of her own suffering, she inspired so many people to help," said St. Malachy's paster the Rev. Richard Baker.

On her website, Match Shannon, the actress appealed to potential donors: "So please get tested today. Who knows? You might be my match. Or, you may be able to help other young people with similar illnesses."

Publicity and appeals by celebrities to help Shannon led 10,000 people to register with DKMS bone-marrow donor center in Manhattan, said executive vice president Katharina Harf.

The young actress did public service ads, encouraging people, especially those of mixed ethnicities, to register.

"She was such an amazing spirit and so beyond her age," Harf said. "People just felt they had to do something."

Wolfe said Shannon's disease had been in remission but she required a transplant "to have a true chance of a cure." In August she received an umbilical cord transplant - using blood harvested from a newborn's umbilical cord instead of bone marrow - at the hospital. But, Wolfe said, "her post transplant course had illness and there were problems; she succumbed very quickly."

Shannon made her Broadway debut in September 2009 and had been appearing in four shows a week at the Minskoff Theatre before she became ill, according to broadway.com. The theater dimmed its lights last night in her memory.

"Shannon's dream was to perform on stage, and that she did," said her mother, Odiney Brown, in a statement. "It is our hope that Shannon's legacy will continue to inspire other brave children battling leukemia," the family said.

About 12,330 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with AML this year, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The chance of getting AML, a cancer that starts in bone marrow, increases with age. About one in five children with leukemia has AML.

To become a bone-marrow donor, call 866-340-DKMS (3567) or go to newsday.com.