Free marrow-donor kit and registration

Tamu sez, "The National Marrow Donor Program is running a campaign from May 5 to 19, but I don't feel they are really emphasizing that registration is free to the first 10 000 people who register with them online during this period. In a previous BB post, a woman really wanted to help and said she couldn't afford it.

This enables people who want to get on the registry who haven't been able to afford it to reigister online with a cheek swab kit, WITHOUT EVEN LEAVING HOME.

Ethnicity plays a huge part in matching. My brother's search led me to discover there are only 1633 people registered in Canada who are of African descent. There are only 233 registered people in Canada who are Chinese. The matches from these people are going to come from other countries… maybe. The US has a severe shortage for many donor pools and needs to diversify their donor pool as well."

If you are not a US resident, this is still important information. Even if you do not live in the US, people who register in the US could save the life of a person anywhere in the world, maybe even where you live. So tell someone about this.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has finally included the details of free registration during its Thanks Mom campaign.

During the event, costs to join the Registry online or at a bone marrow drive are paid for by generous partners and contributors so that it is

Free for the first 46,000 people who join the registry via the NMDP.

This includes the first 10,000 who register for a kit online.

In the US, you get the inside of your cheek swabbed. You get a kit at home or you go to a sponsored NMDP bone marrow drive.

To register online or find the nearest NMDP bone marrow drive, go to www.marrow.org.

Link

(Thanks, Tamu!)

See also: Seeking marrow donor for animation writer/blogger Emru Townsend