Bone Marrow Donation

William Hudson, a producer for the CNN medical team, recently donated bone marrow, and wrote a really nice article on why he did it.

Bone marrow transplants, as Hudson points out, can be life savers for people with blood cancers. They are typically accompanied by aggressive, high dose chemotherapy, which wipes out the patient's bone marrow (the source of blood cells, including cancerous ones -- and including white blood cells which are essential to the immune system). The donated bone marrow helps the patient's immune system recover more quickly.

Hudson describes the procedure he went through for getting on the bone marrow donation registry; for being chosen (only about 1 in 500 people on the registry are ever actually matched up with a cancer patient); and donating the bone marrow. He also describes an alternative procedure, a Stem Cell Transplant. Both of them help, though he chose to donate bone marrow and not just stem cells.

I think Hudson does a great job of not only describing the procedures, but of also answering the question, "Why do it?" As he puts it, "Joining the registry is a statement -- that when cancer affects one of us, it affects all of us."

If you're reading this, you're likely a blood cancer patient, or someone who is very close to one. If you're a patient, encourage your family and friends to add this to their New Year's Resolutions. If you're a loved one, then do it yourself.

There might even be a steak in it for you.....