A family friend recently lost her second battle with Leukemia after a successful bone marrow transplant in round one. The loss really hit our family hard, and she inspired me to sign up for the National Marrow Donor Program. Every four minutes someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with blood cancer. Be The Match has over 24.5 million registered donors, and has facilitated 50,000 transplants in its 25 years. There is roughly a 1 in 540 chance that you will match to a patient who needs a marrow or tissue transplant to beat cancer.
I went online to bethematch.org and it took me about ten minutes to sign up. The application asks for detailed contact information, as well as a basic medical history. After you fill it out, they send you a kit in the mail. The kit contains some stickers to identify your samples, and four cheek swabs that you mail back to them in a postage-paid envelope. You swab each quarter of your inner cheek with a swab (one swab per quarter) for about ten seconds, and then seal it up and send it back. The toughest part was not touching the cottony part of the swab, which needs to stay clean except for your cheek gunk.
Now I'm going to be honest, this is an amazing program, but it's not for everyone. I thought about it carefully and did research before signing up. I found this article very helpful. The process is completely voluntary, and you can change your mind any time. Be The Match pays for all travel arrangements and medical costs. Here are some other criteria for donation:
- You are between the ages of 18 and 44 and in good health
- You are willing to keep the National Marrow Donor Program apprised of your current contact information
- You have an occupation that would allow you to take some time off to travel to donate. Be The Match estimates the time commitment to be 20 to 30 hours over a month, not including travel.
- You are willing to endure some discomfort during and after the medical procedure - the amount varies from person to person, and recovery can take a few days to a couple weeks.
If you're interested, you can click the picture at the top and sign up today!
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