If you'll please pardon the intrusion for a minute I'd like to add my 2 cents to this to point out how urgent the need is for bone marrow donors. (Before my current position at MDACC, I worked as a MUD coordinator/research asst. in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit.)
Unlike other "solid" organs bone marrow must come from a living donor. The extraction procedure is not comfortable, to be sure, but the risk is less than an "open" operation. The tissue matching process is a simple blood test.
The need is all the more urgent for African American donors because there is a HUGE amount of genetic diversity in this ethnic group--more so than any other on the planet. If an AfAm patient does not have a relative who is a tissue match and is capable of giving, their chances of finding a MUD (Matched Unrelated Donor) plummet.
There's more information here:
www.marrow.org
And feel free to email or PM for more information.
Thanx for reading my rant. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
Adrienne (PNAM-2003)
Quote:
Originally posted by AKA2D '91
Nelly's Sister In Dire Need Of Donor And Bone Marrow Transplant
Thu May 8,12:00 AM ET
LAUNCH Radio Networks
The sister of superstar rapper Nelly is in immediate need of a bone marrow transplant. Both the rapper and his sister, Jackie Donahue, will be heading a nationwide awareness and recruitment effort to find a donor.
The campaign they've launched is called Jes Us 4 Jackie. With it, they hope to increase the donor numbers on the National Marrow Donor Program Registry and to specifically find a donor for Jackie.
Nelly and Donahue will hold a press conference on May 14 at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to share Donahue's plight and provide information about the disease.
On June 21, Jes Us 4 Jackie will be sponsoring a nation-wide donor drive for patients in need of bone marrow transplants. The event will target New York, St. Louis, and Los Angeles and specifically look for more African-American donors and donors of mixed heritage.
Also on June 21, the 4 Sho 4 Kids Foundation will sponsor the cost of the test that's required to join the registry as well as the educational materials for all potential donors. Donors must be between 18 and 60 years old.
For more information or to make a monetary contribution, please visit jesus4jackie.com or marrow.org.
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