If you’re a reader of my blog, you’ve I’m sure already heard about my friend Amit who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. He needs a bone marrow transplant. A few of the many people who love Amit put together a wonderful new site, Amit Gupta Needs You where you’ll find almost everything you would possibly want to know about how to get involved. There’s even a list of bone marrow donor drives where you can go get your cheek swabbed to see if you can be a donor not only to Amit but for the tens of thousands of people who need bone marrow transplants every year.
I had my cheek swabbed on Friday. Doctor’s orders— please, please do this!
I’ve been on both the bone marrow registry and live kidney donor registries for over a year now. Unfortunately, my genetic profile puts me as pretty much the most white European you can be.
*All minorities are under-represented on the bone marrow donation list! Not just South Asian.*
Bone marrow transplants do not involve breaking open your bones and sucking out the marrow, despite what I’ve heard more than one person say. x_x In fact, most cases only involve siphoning bone marrow stem cells from the blood, and it’s much more a donation of your time than of anything heavily affecting your body.
It’s a simple process, costs you nothing (the testing of your genetic profile is not exactly cheap for the foundation, but they want registrants!), and even though you’ll probably never be needed, it always feels good to know that you’ll be there if someone’s life can be drastically improved/saved by your actions.
Reblogging for another signal boost! c:
