Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Spread the Word

Timothy had his appointment today.  It was very brief.  Timothy has been very healthy.  No bowel, skin, or other issues.  He’s been active, playful and fun to be around.  Doctors were pleased with his health.  But still no news.  We won’t know the donor status until late January.  In the meantime, we just wait.  I asked about the search, if there were any other potential donors.  None.  As I have mentioned before, Timothy’s HLA type (this is what they use for bone marrow match) is very rare.  We were warned from the beginning that it would be very difficult to find a perfect match for Timothy.  HLA types are ethnicity-specific.  Therefore, there’s higher chance of finding matching donors from the same ethnic group.  We need more Korean donors.  We need more Asian donors.  We need more donors.  Would you consider registering for the registry, if you haven’t already?  Would you consider spreading the word to people you know?  It’s as simple as registering on online and sending in cheek swab samples. 

http://www.asianmarrow.org/index.php/donor/order-an-individual-kit

Or if you would like to organize a drive:
http://www.asianmarrow.org/index.php/donor/how-to-host-a-drive

If you are a part of an organized group, organizing a drive would be the most efficient way to get more donors.  If you are interested in doing this, I can connect you to my contact person to organize the drive.  A3M will do all the work, you just need to get permission to hold the drive.  Please contact me if you are interested.

1 comment:

  1. For the month of January, registration is free on bethematch.org. I don't know if the asianmarrow.org site works through bethematch.org, but if so then I imagine registration would be free there this month also! It's a great month to sign up and a wonderful way to start out the new year as a marrow donor!

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