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Join "Be the Match" for FREE to be a Marrow Donor
January 7, 2012 at
10:03 AM
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This month I decided that I wanted to join "Be the Match" to be entered into the database for bone marrow donors. I knew that it was going to cost $100 in order to offset the cost of the lab costs to test my cells. However, when I went to sign up yesterday it was nice to see that the American Express Foundation has issued a grant to pay for the cost of being registered with "Be the Match" during the month of January.
Simple go to:
www.marrow.org [marrow.org]
DETAILS:
When you join the Be The Match Registry® today, you are joining to help any patient in need of a bone marrow donor. As a volunteer, you are never under any legal obligation to donate and your decision is always respected. However, a late decision not to donate can be life-threatening to a patient, so please think seriously about your commitment before deciding to join.
You can give hope to patients with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, sickle cell and other life-threatening diseases. Patients especially need you if you are between the ages of 18 and 44. That's because younger donors produce more and higher-quality cells than older donors.
The American Express Foundation has provided a grant to cover the costs associated with joining the registry online for the month of January. Service to its customers and to the community has been a hallmark of American Express throughout its 160-year history. As part of its community outreach the American Express Foundation encourages good citizenship by supporting organizations that cultivate meaningful opportunities for civic engagement by its employees and members of the community, whether as volunteers, donors, voters or patrons.
Simple go to:
www.marrow.org [marrow.org]
DETAILS:
When you join the Be The Match Registry® today, you are joining to help any patient in need of a bone marrow donor. As a volunteer, you are never under any legal obligation to donate and your decision is always respected. However, a late decision not to donate can be life-threatening to a patient, so please think seriously about your commitment before deciding to join.
You can give hope to patients with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, sickle cell and other life-threatening diseases. Patients especially need you if you are between the ages of 18 and 44. That's because younger donors produce more and higher-quality cells than older donors.
The American Express Foundation has provided a grant to cover the costs associated with joining the registry online for the month of January. Service to its customers and to the community has been a hallmark of American Express throughout its 160-year history. As part of its community outreach the American Express Foundation encourages good citizenship by supporting organizations that cultivate meaningful opportunities for civic engagement by its employees and members of the community, whether as volunteers, donors, voters or patrons.
Community Wiki
Last Edited by mgm91
January 7, 2012
at
06:40 PM
Please ask questions and do research PRIOR to signing up. The process does have some minimal risks, and depending on the patients needs, could possibly involve some pain in the donation process. The simple truth is, you cannot know what exactly they will need of you because they cannot know ahead of time who you will match and what condition is causing their need for donor marrow. There are people who have been on the marrow donation list for DECADES and have never had a call. You just can't know ahead of time how things are going to work out or what will be needed.
It's better and considerably more charitable to think about this and know exactly what you are signing up for, than to just click and go. It costs a fair amount to process these, but even more important is the patients life and well being.
Marrow donation requires a VERY close match. A patient who gets marrow that doesn't match closely enough can suffer horrendous setbacks, and death is even a very real possibility. To be told there is a good match for you, only to have a donor back out because of fear or having not thought things through is heartbreaking on a level I hope no one ever has to face first hand. I have been there.
Address your concerns please. There is no one working in or with the organ and tissue donation arena that will be anything less than gracious and patient with any questions or worries you have.
I have been involved in kidney donation advocacy for a while now, but decided to join the marrow registry when a friends 4 year old wasted away in under a year from leukemia. The need for marrow donors is even more desperate than the need for blood, because the match has to be much much more exact.
Be the match is VERY good about answering question and giving information and I can also help direct you to info if you need it.
orphicdragon on the forums
[email protected] if you would prefer to email
Donation is one of the coolest things you can do, and if you know what you are getting into and what it involves you won't regret your choice.
Additional message from mgm91:
Hi all. I'm an intern donor recruiter with Be The Match and have experience with answering questions and registering donors. Please feel free to PM me any questions also. Thanks for signing up!
Myths & Facts about Bone Marrow Donation [marrow.org]
Donation FAQs [marrow.org]
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It's better and considerably more charitable to think about this and know exactly what you are signing up for, than to just click and go. It costs a fair amount to process these, but even more important is the patients life and well being.
Marrow donation requires a VERY close match. A patient who gets marrow that doesn't match closely enough can suffer horrendous setbacks, and death is even a very real possibility. To be told there is a good match for you, only to have a donor back out because of fear or having not thought things through is heartbreaking on a level I hope no one ever has to face first hand. I have been there.
Address your concerns please. There is no one working in or with the organ and tissue donation arena that will be anything less than gracious and patient with any questions or worries you have.
I have been involved in kidney donation advocacy for a while now, but decided to join the marrow registry when a friends 4 year old wasted away in under a year from leukemia. The need for marrow donors is even more desperate than the need for blood, because the match has to be much much more exact.
Be the match is VERY good about answering question and giving information and I can also help direct you to info if you need it.
orphicdragon on the forums
[email protected] if you would prefer to email
Donation is one of the coolest things you can do, and if you know what you are getting into and what it involves you won't regret your choice.
Additional message from mgm91:
Hi all. I'm an intern donor recruiter with Be The Match and have experience with answering questions and registering donors. Please feel free to PM me any questions also. Thanks for signing up!
Myths & Facts about Bone Marrow Donation [marrow.org]
Donation FAQs [marrow.org]
This post can be edited by most users to provide up-to-date information about developments of this thread based on user responses, and user findings. Feel free to add, change or remove information shown here as it becomes available. This includes new coupons, rebates, ideas, thread summary, and similar items.
Once a Thread Wiki is added to a thread, "Create Wiki" button will disappear. If you would like to learn more about Thread Wiki feature, click here.
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Definitely worth a little inconvenience to potentially save a life. Was on the registry for around seven years before getting contacted in sept 2011.
Nice post OP!
Occasionally when we have someone who is A+ on my floor and needing red blood cells a lot I'll go and directly donate to them (at my facility you can choose who your blood goes to, but I think if that patient doesn't use it after a set period it's open for grabs before it goes to waste) then assign myself to them in the coming days. When they need blood and it's a directed donor unit I can think I'm giving them my blood. It never really works out that smoothly, mainly because most of our patients need O- blood if they're an allo transplant, and our auto transplants just don't need that much blood. But it's a nice idea.
I've only ever seen a peripheral blood stem cell donor be admitted once, just overnight, in a better-safe-than-sorry situation. Our harvest patients occasionally need to spend the night just to get some IV fluids and pain medicine. Most of them walk out that afternoon fine though.
Linky [marrow.org]
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1. Confirm you meet basic registry guidelines.
2. Complete the online form and order your registration kit. When you join, please also consider making a financial contribution.
3. Follow the instructions in your kit to collect a swab of cheek cells and return the kit.
PS: thank you for having joined already!
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About 3 years back our elementary school had a "drive" in honor of a child with Leukemia. It was held at the school and Yes they did charge everyone $100.00. I went back to the school yesterday with the info gathered here and put it up in their break room.
Even if this was posted before, getting this message out is important!!! Thanks!