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by ahoyhere 5267 days ago
I found out while in a taxi cab this morning & I started crying. So thankful. So glad I could (maybe) help.

It's such a simple thing to save someone's life like this. Please register to be a marrow donor today.

It's no more work than sucking on a lollipop & even the donation process these days is usually not much worse than blood donation (it just takes longer):

http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx

This is ESPECIALLY powerful if you're non-white or mixed race, because -- you probably remember this from when Amit's story started -- the chances of finding a match for an ill non-white or mixed race person is about 1 in TWENTY THOUSAND.

That means that many of these sick people could be saved -- the tech is there, the science is there, but the donors simply aren't. This is hideous, but something we can absolutely fix.

The number of people who registered for Amit will almost surely save many other lives.

So please, please register: http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx

4 comments

All right, you're the one who finally got me. Each time Amit's story has come up on HN someone has posted a link how to join, and each time I'm closer to deciding to do so, but always got a little scared before I pulled the trigger.

Now that I see Amit found a donor and the system works (my eyes teared up a little reading his post), I finally decided I need to join.

So, for everyone else like me who has needed just a bit more motivation; go on and join the registry. I just filled out the forms and requested the cheek swab kit. It takes about 15 minutes to fill out the forms, and then in two weeks they'll send you a cheek swab kit with instructions and a return envelope. Not too bad, so far...

wow, and you were the one who got me! i "was" in the same boat..passed it up, but after reading your post and the follow up, i just had to signed up.

good luck; eat healthy.

update: just finished signing up and it took a whole 7 mins. thanks for the nudge :) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/103326/Slingshot/Pictures/Screen%20S...

This just pushed me into signing up too. I thought it would be a long complicated process. It wasn't. Definitely worth it.
nice!
7 minutes? Either your tubes are way faster than mine or I need to start reading faster.

Thanks for the push folks; it was much simpler than I expected, and now I can be excited for some snail mail!

Hooray, glad to hear it! :-)
Thank you, lovesdir & fady!! You could totally have just set yourself up to save a life. Isn't that amazing? Yes, I'm all moony right now but I'm so happy.

If you're reading this & on the fence about registering, especially if you are non-white or mixed race (& ESPECIALLY Asian + Caucasian), please check out this little site about an adorable little 4-year-old boy who loves sharks and desperately needs to find a donor:

http://kyleneedsyou.org/

And do it now. Not only because doing it now means it'll actually get done, but because Amex is sponsoring the charity this month and paying for all their test-related costs -- meaning the more tests they register in January, the more money Be The Match will have left for future months & for getting the word out:

http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx

As a non-white person, I also registered a few weeks back after seeing the occasional posts on HN.
Thanks for reminding again. I wanted to do this for a long time and I just did.
Got my donor card in the mail today!