Young "The Lion King" Star Shannon Tavarez Loses Battle with Leukemia

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of  "Lion King" star Shannon Tavarez, 11, who lost her battle against leukemia yesterday. According to the NY Daily News, she played Young Nala in "The Lion King" on Broadway. She died after getting an umbilical cord transplant in late August that doctors had hoped would help save her life, BroadwayWorld.com said.

Her plight had prompted more than 8,000 people from around the country to sign up as bone-marrow donors in a campaign in her name. But no marrow match could be found, so she underwent the umbilical cord transplant as an alternate treatment.

Rapper 50 Cent played a big part in the outpouring of offers of help to the Bellerose schoolgirl with a megawatt smile, making a YouTube video about getting his cheek swabbed to become a marrow donor. In less than a week, more than 3,600 people had signed up as donors online through donor center DKMS Americas. Shannon had undergone extensive chemotherapy since she learned she had leukemia last spring. Recently, she had been struggling to stabilize in an intensive care unit, BroadwayWorld.com said. Source:  NY Daily News

Her parents can take solace in the fact that she fought to the very end. It is a sad turn of events, but she's out of her suffering now.