Delete Blood Cancer: What You May Not Know About Bone Marrow Donation

We all know about blood drives and the importance of blood and platelet donations to save lives. And millions of people are registered organ donors (usually when they get their driver’s license). But did you know that there is another renewable, life-saving resource you could give?  It’s your blood stem cells/bone marrow. Only 11 million Americans are registered with the National Marrow Donor Program to help save lives if their blood stem cells match a person fighting any one of 70 blood cancers and diseases. Each year, nearly 20,000 people are in need of blood stem cell/bone marrow transplants as their last hope for a cure to a terminal blood cancer or disease. The majority of those people rely on matched unrelated donors to receive the healthy, matching blood stem cells. Big Statistics Get Personal These statistics became real to Vesta Goldammer. Last February, her phone rang. It was her mom. “Your sister’s chronic blood cancer has transformed into an aggressive form of myelofibrosis. Her bone marrow can’t produce enough blood and it’s going to get worse. She needs a donor stem cell transplant this year.”  Immediately, Vesta and her other sister and two brothers did the high resolution blood test to see which one of them would be her life-saving match.  Since there is a 25% chance a sibling will match, they figured one of them would be her match. It was not to be. Her sister, Marina, was among the 70% of patients who do not have a suitable match in her fami...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Access Advocacy Cancer Consumer Health Care Patients Publc Health Source Type: blogs