The Story Of Sharing America’s Marrow

(L-R) Taylor Shorten, Sam Kimura and Alex Kimura (photo courtesy of SAM) Two sisters and their best friend have set off on a courageous journey across the country to visit over 190 cities with a goal of registering 50,000 blood marrow donors.Alex and Sam Kimura of Louisville, Kentucky are the co-founders of Sharing America’s Marrow (SAM), a grassroots movement created years after Sam was diagnosed at age 17 with the rare bone marrow disease severe aplastic anemia. Although the cure is a blood marrow transplant, Sam, now 22, has been unable to find a match. With the support of Delete Blood Cancer DKMS, the two sisters and their best friend Taylor Shorten began their road trip in January to visit all 50 states at “churches, colleges, concerts and everything in between” to promote increased awareness of blood cancer and blood diseases, in addition to finding donors for Sam and thousands of others. Despite a busy, sometimes exhausting tour driving across America in a van named Maggie, Sam was able to spend a few moments to talk more about their cause and how people can potentially save someone’s life.  How did you and your sister get started with Sharing America’s Marrow? Alex and I came up with the concept of Sharing America’s Marrow about a year ago. We had been doing bone marrow donor drives ever since my diagnosis of severe aplastic anemia in 2010, but we wanted to do something really big. We enjoyed registering donors and knowing that each person has the poten...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Boston's Best Family & Pets Health Alex Kimura Best Of blood cancer blood diseases bone marrow diseases bone marrow donors Delete Blood Cancer Donor Jam Louisville Kentucky Randy Yagi Sam Sam Kimura severe aplastic anemia S Source Type: news