BoneMarrowDrive

Bone Marrow Donor Registration

PROBLEM:

This year, 30,000 people will be diagnosed with diseases that are treatable with a marrow or blood stem cell transplant. People are most likely to find a marrow match with someone of the same racial or ethnic background. Of those registered with the National Marrow Donor Program Registry®, only 25% are racial minorities, with mixed race people representing a mere 2%. By diversifying the pool of potential donors, all individuals, regardless of their heritage have a better chance at finding a life-saving match!

SOLUTION:

A simple prick takes a fingerprint's worth of your blood; you are then tested and added to the National Marrow Donor Program Registry and remain on it until age sixty; if, in the future, you are identified as a match for someone, you will be contacted and given the choice of whether or not you wish to donate.

If you ever did wish to donate, it is considered a routine procedure. You are not obligated to donate marrow when you are added to the National Registry; however, giving a prick of your blood at a Bone Marrow Registration may give someone hope in the future.

It is difficult to find a matching ethnic background if you are a multiracial person. The more similar one’s ethnic background, the greater the chances of a match. So, the recruitment of multiracial people has been a focus of organizations like the Mavin Foundation (mavinfoundation.org), which focus on multiracial issues. Moreover, the National Marrow Donor Program Registry also lacks minority representation in general, and so our Bone Marrow Registration project at Yale will reach out to all minority groups. Many illnesses are treatable with marrow or blood stem cell transplants.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

(A Message from SMHAC President Lauren Dacey)

I lost my brother, Michael Christopher Dacey, to leukemia when he was only five years old. Had he been strong enough to receive a bone marrow transplant before he died, it could very well have saved his life. Often, even siblings are not matches (as was the case for Michael and me) and as a child of mixed descent, it was nearly impossible to find him a matched donor. Last year, I registered with the National Marrow Donor Program. To register was an extremely simple process that took fifteen minutes out of my day. They pricked my finger, and now I am on file with them. Perhaps one day they will call me. To know that I may have the bone marrow that someone needs to survive made me want to register, and I hope this fact may motivate some of you. People of mixed heritage and minority race need bone marrow just as much as Caucasians do. PLEASE add to the matches available for people of mixed heritage and minority race. You could save someone’s life.