September 25, 2007

• Looking for Bone Marrow Donors

  A few years ago, my friend Bryan helped save a little boys life by donating bone marrow [post].  It made me intend to register as a donor myself, but I never got around to it.  It was one of things like, “I should exercise more” or “I should learn a new foreign language.”  Probably a combination of laziness and needle avoidance.

  This week I learned that a friend’s newborn child is desperately needing a bone marrow transplant in the next 5 weeks.  I also learned two amazing facts about bone marrow donation:

  1. The registration to become a donor no longer requires a blood sample.  Now they only need a swab from the inside of your cheek.  It must be CSI technology that’s filtered into mainstream medicine.
  2. If you are selected as a donor, it’s possible to donate marrow without surgery — they just extract some blood stem cells from a blood donation.

  Here’s the website with full info: http://www.savejonah.com/.  It looks like they have an extended family and church community looking for bone marrow donors in California.  Here in Boston, they are taking cheek-swab samples this Sunday 9/30 between 10AM – 2PM, at BCEC, 249 Harrison Ave. [map].  The chances of matching are higher if you are of Asian descent, so please consider registering.  If you can’t make it on Sunday, you can order a free home cheek-swab kit here: http://www.aadp.org/pages/register.php.

  • 10:40 am
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