Clearinghouse for Volunteers

Bone Marrow Donor Drive Needs YOU

By: Sarah Miller

Posted: 9/18/08

09/18/08 - Next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 23-25) you can join the growing community of people committed to stand ready to save a life. In the Memorial Union Gallery from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., you can become a member of the national Marrow Donor Program Registry.

It is quick and easy. All you need to do to register is fill out some simple paperwork and take a mouth swab. That's it! It is that simple to add your information to the registry of donors that are needed to find matches for the thousands of individuals in need.

This is the first time the University of Rhode Island has done a Marrow Donor Drive. You may be asking what the need is for donors and how the registry works. Well, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) helps people who need a life-saving marrow or blood cell transplant. They connect patients, doctors, donors and researchers to the resources they need to help more people live longer and healthier lives.

According to the NMDP Web Site:

• Every year, more than 10,000 Americans get life-threatening diseases that can only be cured with a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. The patients do not have a family donor and transplant is their only hope for a cure.

• Since it began operations in 1987, the National Marrow Donor Program has facilitated more than 30,000 marrow or blood cell transplants for patients who do not have matching donors in their families.

• On average, the NMDP facilitates more than 300 transplants each month, with more than 3,700 marrow and cord blood transplants in 2007.

• Patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphomas or other blood cancers make up approximately 72 percent of transplants facilitated by the NMDP. The remaining patients undergo transplant to treat a variety of immune system and inherited disorders.

• Advances such as reduced-intensity transplants have made transplant a treatment option for more patients, particularly older patients. In 2007, 35 percent of NMDP transplants - nearly 1,300 transplants - were for patients aged 50 and older.

• Only 30 percent of patients in need of a marrow or blood cell transplant find a matched donor in their family. The other 70 percent may turn to the NMDP to search for an unrelated donor or cord blood unit.

You could help save the life of someone in need. Registration is free!

Please bring your health insurance information with you. You must be 18-60 years of age, in general good health and willing to help any patient. The groups of individuals identified by the NMDP for focused recruitment are: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

So stop by the Memorial Union Gallery on Sept. 23, 24 or 25 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. to join the registry. We are hoping to reach our goal of registering more than 500 members of the URI community! See you there!

For more information please go to www.marrow.org.