Over the weekend I signed up to be a bone marrow donor. I had no idea how easy the process is and the profound impact it can have on someone's life until a friend told me more about it and I read into it myself.
First, to register as a bone marrow donor, the National Marrow Donation Program will send you a free kit. The kit consists of a cotton swab for you to take a cheek sample and then send it back. Your swab is placed into their database, where you wait until you are matched with a person in need.
Once you are matched, there are two ways to donate your bone marrow. (both of which are free). The majority of donations do not involve any surgery. Most of the time, the donation is done solely through peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation, which is non-surgical and is extracted in a method similar to donating blood. The other way of donating is through a marrow donation from your hip, which is an out-patient surgical procedure in which you go home the same day you donate. You can read more about the process here.
You can sign up here to get your free kit to register with the National Marrow Donor Program as a bone marrow donor. Hope you all will look into it and consider signing up as well.
1 comment:
Wow, that is soo amazing of you!!! I hope more people do things like that for people, xxxoo
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