Written by This is a great opportunity to get yourself entered into the bone marrow data base. Your bone marrow can save someone else’s life… possibly the most significant kind of gift you can ever give! Getting yourself entered into the data base is painless and will not cost anything under this program (normally there is a small processing fee). If you are later found to be a match for someone, the bone marrow donation is an outpatient procedure.
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Hey Randy,
I don’t mean to spam, but I’d love it if you could promote this to your readers. There are too many people out there that should still be with us but weren’t able to find a match, and people with diverse ethnic backgrounds are especially needed. The “free” aspect should be a bonus too.
Click here to be taken to a page with more information
(I’m not in any way affiliated with the above blog, but someone passed the link on to me and I thought it was a great cause.)
Donation is not hard anymore
The actual procedure for bone marrow donation is not invasive or hard anymore. It’s not something anyone does for thrills – but it’s safe, quick and rewarding if you’re fortunate to make a match for someone who needs it.
The people who need bone-marrow transplants usually have disease that they acquired through no fault of their own. These are normal, and good, people who just got unlucky.
The better the match, the better the outcome – and while matches usually break down along racial lines, there are really amusing stories about really interesting matches.
This really is an opportunity to save someone’s life – with really no risk to you. You don’t have to get burned to save someone from a fire, you don’t have to get run over saving a child from a speeding car. You just have to give some time.
Re: Donation is not hard anymore
PS:
Everyone should get screened! But especially people who are minorities – usually donations and matches are confined to the country we live in. If you’re a minority – your really need to hustle and get screened. Because of the small amount of people in a minority group – it’s that much harder to find a good match. If you’re a European mutt like me or are from Africa – get screened as well. Europe and Africa are huge! We tend to label ourselves as black and white – but as far as donations are concerned, South Africa is a long way form the Ivory Coast. Scots are quite different from Greeks.. etc…
Thank you Randy for passing this along, and thank you Ben for your great comments! I actually had the chance to donate peripheral blood stem cells a few years ago (related to bone marrow, but an overall less invasive procedure) and it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It really was a minimally invasive procedure (a couple of mornings off of work–no big deal) and it made such a difference for the recipient.