Please Spread Word.... Save a life. Be a part of the movement. Register to be a Bone Marrow Donor.
ALL DAY! 10:30am to 7pm on Bateman Plaza-- TODAY!! (Rain location, basement of CC) * What is MatchMaker?* MatchMaker is the only national program dedicated to recruitment of mixed race bone marrow donors. The need for mixed race bone marrow donors is great because each year approximately 130,000 people are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases like leukemia and other blood cancers and it is estimated that at least 12,000 of these patients will not be cured without a bone marrow transplant (BMT). * What is a BMT?* A BMT is a “bone marrow transplant” in which a patient’s diseased or malfunctioning blood and immune system can be replaced by a new one that comes from cells collected from a volunteer living donor. These special cells can be taken from the donor’s bone marrow (which is collected during a procedure in the operating room) or from the donor’s blood stream (where the donor’s cells are collected by filtering the blood). In addition, these special blood forming cells can be obtained from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby right after delivery. Suitable donors are chosen based on matching certain blood proteins (often referred to as “tissue typing”) between the patient and donor. Since the factors that determine the “match” are genetically based, patients have the best chance of finding a donor within their biological family. However, only 25 – 30% of patients are able to find a related (family) donor. The rest of the patients must then rely on finding a donor that is unrelated to them; most likely to occur with someone of a similar genetic or racial background. *Why MatchMaker? BMT Donor Disparities* At present, approximately only 25% of those listed in the donor registry of the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) are racial minorities, with mixed race people representing a mere 2% of the total. Thus the odds of a patient of any minority heritage, or combination of heritages, being able to find a BMT donor when needed are extremely small. The NMDP began operation in 1986. Since then, especially in the past decade, there have been increased recruitment efforts to diversify the unrelated donor pool and recruit donors of minority and mixed heritage. The percentage of registered minority group donors is currently similar to the proportion of each group in the national population. However, the number of minority and mixed ethnicity donors still needs to increase significantly in order to give any single patient from these backgrounds an equal chance to find a suitably matching donor. The situation is particularly critical for patients of mixed heritage, whose numbers in the US population are increasing rapidly. By diversifying the pool of potential donors, MatchMaker is working to ensure that all individuals in need of a life-saving transplant have a better chance at finding a matched donor. Why register? http://mavinfoundation.org/projects/matchmaker.html _______________________________________________ Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org) [email protected] http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html http://macmmuf.org/mailman/listinfo/list_macmmuf.org
