Free bone marrow test kit - Chance to save life of boy in video...or someone else's life ---

Please take a couple minutes of your time to register to become a bone marrow donor. You can register to get a FREE kit at www.marrow.org. The kit is free, but donations are accepted. The kit takes about 7-10 days to arrive. In about five minutes, you can use the swabs they send to take samples from the inside of your cheeks and put them back in the prepaid envelope and send them back. At that point, it takes about 8-12 weeks to get you registered in the national registry which is then shared with all the registries around the world.

The odds for the average person of finding an unrelated bone marrow donor are about 1/20,000 as up to 10 markers which are passed down through tissue liniage must match. However, for those of mixed cultural background, the odds are even lower....we need everyone to register.

The boy in the video http://vimeo.com/26734548, Luca Kar, was 18 months old when they found out he had Leukemia AML M7 after weeks of spiking fevers and visits to the hospital. He had no siblings at the time he needed a donor and is of Turkish-American Liniage - so his family was desperate for a match. (A sister has since been born, but after he received a stem cell donation.) Here is a link to a note written by his mother http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.p...9858200285. When his first round of Chemotherapy was unsuccesful in bringing him into remission, his family launched a massive international internet bone marrow drive for donors - specifically those of mixed heritage with one parent from Eastern European background and one from regions in and around Turkey. The response has been phenomenal - but they still did not have a match. While pushing this drive, they have also encouraged any and all people to register to save lives - no matter what their background - to save other people needing donors. Luca has just finished his third round of massively intentive Chemotherapy in hopes of bringing him to remission.

*UPDATE - Those who have been following this thread know that Luca received a stem cell transplant from an umbilical cord that had been frozen in Spain nine years prior. He spent over 130 days in isolation after the transplant to rebuild an immune system. He is currently home, still one limited isolation, but he is home.

HOWEVER, there are still many, many children and adults all around the world in desperate need of a donor. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE register for a free kit so you can potentially save someone's life.

Please feel free to repost his video and his story to your social networking sites, email to your friends, your social organizations, churches, PTAs or anyone who you think may want to save a life. Thank you!

******Due to immediate need: Luca is starting the procdures leading to his transplant this week. We DO NOT have a great match. Currently, the turn-around time at www.marrow.org is only six weeks. Please consider registering in case we need another donor for Luca or for the opportunity to help someone else as well. This is a wonderful way to literally give a little bit of yourself today...


****UPDATE 9-12***** http://www.hornseyjournal.co.uk/n...3289198385


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