Hope for Rajan.

Found this via an email from Badmash (is it just me, or is the comic less funny since the character got married and the strip went to a weekly 4-panel format?).

Anyway, there is a nation-wide bone marrow donor drive for South Asians. Last time I gave blood I think I put myself into the national bone marror registry, and today I updated my contact information at the National Marrow Donor Program. If you are of South Asian descent, I urge you to attend one of these donor drives if you can, and to pass the message along to other people you may know. Being registered as a donor puts you under no obligation.

I remember a few (10?) years ago there was a similar problem because there weren't sufficient donors of African descent, and there was a story in Reader's Digest about a girl who had leukemia and couldn't find a donor. She died, but the good news was that because of the publicity her case created about the lack of African-American donors led to an increase in African-American donors and in fact a year(?) later Reader's Digest ran a story about a girl whose leukemia was cured because of a donor. The donor's courageous journey was also described. Hey, it was Reader's Digest after all. (And then they were all chased by a secular gay shark when their boat capsized.)

Questions about being a marrow donor? Look here. Did you know if you have a baby, you could also donate your cord?
- posted by k @ 10:35 AM