The bone marrow registry has approximately 19 million donors but the percentage of Indian/South Asian donors is less than 3 percent.
According to Be The Match, a patient’s likelihood of finding a bone marrow match ranges from19 to 80 percent depending on ethnic background. So, the odds of South Asian families finding South Asian donors who are a 100% match is an uphill task.
I decided to do this post for my friend Jaspreet’s nephew, Sahil as it pulled at my heart strings as I also lost a cousin years ago to Leukemia. Sahil is so much more than a hashtag #swabforsahil, he is 34yrs old and was diagnosed with a rare form of Acute Leukemia on May 31st 2019. He is a loving husband and father to a 2 yr old son. He needs a bone marrow transplant ASAP to survive and be there for all those special milestones for his son. Just like Sahil, there are many others waiting for a chance to LIVE.
We urge you to click the link below and register at one of these centers. HLA testing (which determines your bone marrow type) is just a simple cheek swab. It only takes about 10 minutes and is absolutely free.
US: www.bethematch.org or text CURE140 to 61474
Canada : www.blood.ca
UK : www.nhsbt.nhs.uk
Australia: www.abmdr.org.au
India & rest of Asia: www.arjanvirfoundation.org and https://www.dkms-bmst.org/en. These registries are in India and connected with many hospitals in India as well as several worldwide research organizations like Stanford.
HLA markers used in matching are inherited and some ethnic groups have more complex tissue types than others. So a person’s best chance of finding an adult donor may be with someone of their own ethnic background. If you are a match, the donor process is very simple. It’s like donating blood and requires no surgeries.
We have a thousand excuses of why today is not a good day – we are all busy with work, kids, activities, and those endless sports/drama/debate practices ..(fill in the blank) and yes we know- you are busy!
Are you saying YOU DON’T HAVE TIME AND ARE TOO BUSY TO POTENTIALLY SAVE A LIFE TODAY?
Because we know that’s not what you are saying and we get it. We really do.
But we also know that you have to MAKE TIME for important things in life and POTENTIALLY SAVING SOMEONE’S LIFE should rank as #1 on your TODAY’S To DO List!
So, lets get out of our comfort zone, register to become a donor, help spread the word and maybe even gather all our desi friends and organize a donor drive in our South Asian Community.
We South Asians love our numbers and love to be #1. So we need to work harder on improving our donor registry grade to an “A”, because with a 3 percent right now we are sitting at an “F”. And that is not going to cut it.
Each and every single person will add to the donor pool count. “Every drop in the ocean counts.” – Yoko Ono. You could be someone’s cure. You could literally save a life….TODAY, so whip out that phone and TEXT or connect with one of the donor registry sites above.
Let’s pray that when you send out that SOS (which we hope you do not need to but if you do) – Strangers will rise up and help JUST LIKE YOU ARE GOING TO DO TODAY!
Stay Blessed Today & Always and Thank You!