Some very sad news. 11-year-old Broadway star Shannon Tavarez has lost her battle with acute myeloid leukemia. The angelic soprano from Queens, New York, is mostly known for playing Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway and her story became national news after she appeared on Wendy Williams this year looking for people to donate bone marrows to help her fight cancer. Word is doctors were unable to find a bone-marrow match for a transplant, because she is of mixed descent. Shannon received an umbilical-cord transplant in late August as an alternative.
After Shannon's story made national news, it inspired Alicia Keys and Rihanna to campaign to get her the bone-marrow transplant she needed.
Shannon made her Broadway debut in the Lion King in September 2009, and stopped in April, when she was diagnosed. My condolensces to the Tavares family.
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