DO SOMETHING BIG
African Americans are facing a big challenge. Many African Americans fighting diseases like sickle cell anemia, leukemia and lymphoma can’t find marrow donors.
They need more African Americans to step up and join Be The Match marrow registry.
The tissue types used for matching patients with donors are inherited, so patients are most likely to find a match within their own racial of ethnic heritage. That means adding more donors to the registry-especially from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds-increases the likelihood that all patients will find the donor they need. For example-15 year old Taylor John has severe sickle cell disease; her best hope for a cure is a marrow transplant. Like 70% of patients, Taylor does not have a matching donor in her family. She is most likely to match another African American.
There are 8 million people on the Be The Match Registry, but only 600,000 - 7% - are African Americans.
“Together we can provide hope to patients of every age and race-that power is within everyone’s reach,” said O’Neal. “take the first step at BeTheMatch.org.”To join, go to the BeTheMatch.org website or call 1-800-627-7692.
Be between 18 and 60 years of age and in overall good health with medical guidelines and be willing to donate to any patient in need. More information is available on the website or by speaking with a volunteer at the phone number provided above.
Once you register, you may order your kit. Simply follow the directions to collect a swab of cheek cells and return the kit.
Another site where you can find some good information about the need for African-American bone marrow donors is blackbonemarrow.com, which is where we found the following article about a Postal employee who died earlier this year while waiting for a bone marrow match.
Karen Drayden from Dallas Texas, a 25 year veteran of the United States Postal Service. In early 2009 she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. After initial chemotherapy and a relapse, it was determined that her best chances of survival would be a bone marrow transplant. With out a matching sibling it was an extra hard blow to find out there was no one on the registry who matched her tissue type. I met Karen in the hospital where she asked me to speak to her co-workers and that although she knew her chances of survival where not good, she wanted to make a difference for others who are facing the same grim prognosis.
After several more months of chemotherapy and a couple of relapses a partial umbilical cord match was found for her. However it was determined that the levels of leukemia cells were too high for her to undergo the procedure. Karen says “I am truly sick and this illness is winning but I am trying all I can so that doctors can learn more and help the next resistant patient and it saddens me” (Jan 15, 2010). Those would be her last words to me, she passed away two weeks later on January 28th. I told her I would tell her story.
