Yesterday morning, listening to Morning Edition, I heard a story about the need to register more bone marrow donors, especially potential mixed-race donors. The interview was with the mother of a little girl named Maya. Maya is a four-year-old mixed race child (her mother is from her India; her father is of European ancestry). This story about her need for a donor was a powerful reminder that the advances of the most amazing of sciences, in this case a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer, still rest upon the kindness of strangers.
I have been on the bone marrow registry for eleven years. I got on the registry when a colleague's son was diagnosed with cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, there is a feeling of powerlessness that takes hold. Parents, people devoted to the protection of their young, are suddenly faced with a threat well-beyond their ability to vanquish. John's cancer diagnosis galvanized our small town; many of us waited in line for the blood draw that would place us on the registry.
Every few months, I get a newsletter from the registry that confirms my address. Without doubt, if I am ever called upon to donate, I will step forward to help. There are 7 billion people in this world; 300 million of them in the United States. The National Bone Marrow Donor Registry has just 13 million people on the list. A few more kind strangers would certainly help.
1 comment:
Good for you! I signed up when my cousin was diagnosed with leukemia about ten years ago. I wasn't a match for her (and it turns out no one on the registry was), but in 2005, I got the call for an Italian man I'd never met.
I wrote about it here: http://tamingoftheblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/autumn-harvest.html
And again a little here:
http://tamingoftheblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/autumn-harvest-update.html
About a year later, I got called back in for a follow-up donation (using apheresis, which is much less painful and hospital-intensive than surgery), so I know he lived at least that long. Every few months I have an internal debate about calling the donation center in Milwaukee to see if they will tell me his status now. I've never done it.
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