#ciscodigital

Before today, I was unable experience first-hand the impact that social media can have in gathering people together and fulfilling dreams. I want to share the story of Ryan Manansala and how he was able to have his one wish granted through the power of social media.

Ryan was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in 2012. He has been looking for a bone marrow donor, but this has proved to be a difficult journey. He needs to receive a transplant from a Filipino, but out of the 10 million Americans registered on the bone marrow transplant list, less than 1% of those are Filipino. He is currently in a state where he can no longer speak, but was able to write out his one final wish: Receive a visit from the Golden State Warriors.

One of Ryan's friends, Sherry Duong, spearheaded this effort through social media to grant her friend's wish. She started out on Facebook, extending to the UC Berkeley student network, which is how I first heard about Ryan. Sherry visually shared her personal experiences with Ryan throughout social media and requested people to tweet at the Golden State Warriors using the hashtag #SaveRyan. This began expanding the effort to Twitter, and creatively used Facebook to elevate this cause. Through the suggestions, she posted on Reddit through the Golden State Warriors subreddit and was able to receive traction there to encourage users to tweet as well.

Soon enough, hundreds of tweets were entering the Twitter Universe and it gained attention quickly! Many users were tweeting #SaveRyan and mentioning @Warriors on their tweets to amplify the message of granting Ryan's one last wish. The turn around through social media was astounding!

In less than 24 hours, Ryan was visited by two players from the Golden State Warriors, David Lee and Nemanja Nedović. His wish was granted and Ryan was overjoyed. The two players spent some time with him at the El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and left him some signed memorabilia.

After this visit, the continuation of #SaveRyan exploded on social media. Many users were thanking the players for visiting Ryan and the Golden State Warriors shared their efforts to their fans through their own social media channels. Ryan's wish was also picked up as a story on the local CBS news and also brought more awareness of the difficulties in finding a donor for a bone marrow transplant.