Donations

The National Marrow Donor Program has once again waived the fee for marrow donation registration for a couple of weeks -- June 8 to the 22nd. Please consider registering.


The NMDP had a similar program last year (though they didn't call it the "Match Marrowthon" then. I dig the nice name change.) It usually costs about $100 to get someone on the registry, but a donor is paying the fees during the Marrowthon. Pretty simple -- you get a kit from NMDP and send a cheek swab so they can figure out your profile and potentially match you up with someone who needs a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. Donating the marrow/stem cells isn't too tough -- see the steps here. Sounds a whole lot like a Bone Marrow Biopsy, which I did with just local anesthetic. Not fun, but a huge deal. Toughen up.


If you're a regular reader, you know (or can guess) how important bone marrow transplants are for lots of cancer patients. For some fNHL patients (and especially for patients of more aggressive lymphomas), transplants are currently their last hope. The transplants support heavy chemo treatments, which destroys their immune systems. The transplant allows the immune system to recover much more quickly than it would on its own, making the recipient much less vulnerable to serious (and sometimes life-threatening) infection.


*****************************


If you're not up for donating a part of your body, then consider giving a little cash instead. My brother is still in training for the Pan Mass Challenge, and is still seeking donations. The money from his two-day August bike ride goes to cancer research at Dana-Farber. (They're in the middle of 50 different clinical trials for various types of NHL, including a bunch for follicular. Some very cool-looking, cutting-edge treatments.)


I'm sure my brother will be good enough to post instructions once again for how to make a donation.

Consider giving something.