Little Anema lost her battle with a rare form of the disease last week (27Jan10) after being admitted to New York University’s Langone Medical Center, suffering from fevers and shortness of breath.
She was diagnosed with the illness in January, 2009 and captured the hearts of the public and singers like Rihanna and Kelly Rowland , who called on fans to register as bone marrow donors to help find a potential match.
A suitable donor was found and the youngster received a bone marrow transplant last year (09) – but tragedy struck last Wednesday when she was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs and passed away.
Anema’s friends and relatives joined her grieving mother Thea Anema at Manhattan’s Industria Studios on Sunday to pay their last respects to the youngster as she was laid to rest in a white coffin.
Former Law & Order star Hennessy, a friend of the Anema family, performed a musical tribute especially written for little Jasmina, reports People.com.
She told the crowd, “Jasmina, you are an angel. I think you kind of made angels of a lot of people in this room who really got together and achieved some huge, incredible things and made people incredibly aware (of the need for bone-marrow donors).”
