| Author | Message | ||
     Euclidean |
Folks: A college friend of my wife is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant in to save his life. As it turns out, it is very difficult to find suitable donors and often thousands must be tested to find a compatible donor. The testing process is not difficult or painful. All that is needed is a blood sample. We are looking for donors of Southeast Asian ancestry (also China, Japan, and Korea). If you can help, please contact coralinda@aol.com. Thank you. | ||
| Nakaille |
This is a REALLY, REALLY worthy sort of charitable thing to do and really easy. (Doesn't even cost anything except a little time.) The need for bone marrow donors nationwide is sadly underreported. And especially non-Caucasian donors. The highest rate of matching (6 of 6 factors) is within racial and ethnic groups. (Full siblings are the best possibility but may not exist or may have other health issues which disqualify them even if they do match.) Bone marrow donations really do save lives for people of all ages. (Can you tell I'm a registered donor - have never been called in the 5 years I've been on the list but hey, you never know.) Hope there's a match out there for all of us if we ever need it. The best way to ensure that is to enlarge the pool of potential donors. If you get tested for one specific person you can choose to be on the general registry as well. Bacata | ||
| Hismom |
Bone Marrow donation is a wonderful thing. I used to work for the National Marrow Donor Program and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see someone so sick get a second chance from a complete stranger. It is proof of how wonderful people can be. However, please don't join the registry if you aren't committed to donating if you ever match. It is very shattering to a patient to hear that they have a potential match and that person not want to do it because they are too busy, the can't find out the person's name (it is an anonymous program), race or religion. (Yes, I heard all these excuses.) For more information you can go to www.marrow.org. | ||
| Snowmom |
Shortly after I entered the registry (several years ago) I received a phone call stating that I was a potential match and that further testing was required; thus the phone call, they were seeking my permission to continue. Needless to say I agreed, but when I hung up the phone I felt as if I had hit the lottery! It was an amazing feeling to think that I could possibly contribute to saving someone's life. As it turned out I was not a proper match, but maybe someday I will be. I urge anyone who is able to do this to seriously consider it. The actual donation is not much more involved than a blood donation. , and you could potentially save a life. |
