On the more important front: YAY! We have figured out a way for people in England over the age of 40 to register for the Bone Marrow Registry other than using the Anthony Nolan Center. The Anthony Nolan Center will only take 26,000 stem cell donations a year because that is all they can afford to tissue type and put on the registry. They are a charity, and so that is $1.4M they need to raise just for the samples! They're very strict about age because I guess the under 40's are typically healthier donors. And I can see how that is one viable approach.
http://www.anthonynolan.org/
The other option in England is to go through the NHSBT. The National Health Service Blood and Transplant. If you are over 40 and willing to donate blood, and if you ask them, they will take a small extra amount of blood and type it and put you on the registry. And they will take you up until your 50th birthday. Feels kind of Blade Runner-ish. Doesn't it? All that aside, if you're in your 40's, please go for it!
http://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/
After thinking about this, I think my preferred approach to attracting donors would be to handle it the way Gift of Life does in Florida. They accept donors up until age 60. And yes, probably partially because of this, they have a backlog of samples that need to be typed and put in the registry. I think I'd rather have this backlog of samples that I could fund-raise my ass of to get typed than to ever turn a person away. There are SO MANY people with blood diseases that can not find matches! Wouldn't you rather have a match from someone in their 50's than have no match at all? I know I would!! Please click the link here to help Gift of Life get it done! http://www.giftoflife.org/dc/dina%2Drukeyser%2FMembers.aspx
It's all about attracting donors. Love Hope Strength does drives at Rock concerts and does fundraising by sponsoring people who do amazing things like climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. They have recently worked with the producer Susan Brecker, whose husband, Michael Brecker, the great jazz saxophone player, sadly died of Leukemia. She produced a film called "More to Live For", following 3 people with Leukemia. Her husband, who passed away because there was no match for him, an Olympic Athlete and the head of Love Hope Strength, both of whom had transplants and are doing well. My hope is that in this Olympic year, maybe someone from the film can come to England and we will ROCK a fund-raiser for them!!!! Please check out:
www.lovehopestrength.org
LOVE TO ALL!
What a joy it is to read your blog, Dina. Thank you for sharing your highs and lows with us. Your insight is amazing, your courage is inspiring, and your persistent sense of humor is heartening (not to mention funny). Plus you write really well. Here's to the bump in the road becoming a distant memory REALLY, REALLY SOON.
ReplyDelete(Although I do have a bone to pick with you: "Grateful Dead overdose?!" Ahem. No such thing…) :)
xoxo
P.S. The above comment was posted by me, Karen Abrams (nee Gruenberger), who clearly hasn't quite figured out the whole blog post/commenting thing. xoxo
ReplyDeleteKaren. You're such a love. I really feel like you've got my back. Thank you. P.S. you're such a deadhead! Pardon if I insulted. I love them too but I think i might have my limit! Seems impossible coming from Scarsdale. Doesn't it?
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