Be the Match

I had been flirting with signing up to be a bone marrow donor for a while, since I already give blood on a regular basis. However, I had balked at paying the $50 sign up fee.....at least until my finances were a little better.

Then I came across Confession of a Jersey Girl's website. Right now, the bone marrow donor program is running Marrowthon through June 22nd. It's a great way to sign up- for FREE!


Here is some more information found on CJG's post:


Be The Match (formerly National Marrow Donor Program), helps facilitate the coordination of searching cancer, or pre-cancer, patients with bone marrow donors. Their registry is a place where suffering patients can go and try to find a matching marrow donor who would give them a bone marrow transplant. For many people searching for marrow, their only chance for survival is finding a perfect match on the registry. Ordinarily it costs about $50 to join the registry to become a potential donor, but during the Marrowthon, June 8-22, joining is free. And it is really, really easy.

Joining the registry doesn’t mean you have to give blood or anything with needles. All you do is swab the inside of your cheek with a long Q-tip. I’ve done it, and it’s completely painless. You can even join from home and do the whole thing yourself. By joining the registry you basically say that you are willing to donate marrow to a recipient if you are ever matched up, which in itself is an extremely rare occurrence. The vast majority of people who are on the registry never get called. Even if you do get matched up, all you do is donate some blood and help save a life. No needles in the hip (it’s not 1950 anymore).

To sign up, log on here, answer a questionnaire, and Be The Match will send over a swab kit in about 3-5 days. All you do is swab your inner cheek, place the swab in a sealed bag and mail it back.
Steve, Cynical Sympathy


What are you waiting for? You could save a life!!