Make a Difference – Be the Match!
We are all constantly exposed to negative news and content, so we wanted to take this opportunity to share a message of hope and some positivity!
Recently Curtis was encouraged by a close friend who happens to also be a Blood and Marrow Transplant Certified Nurse at the Oregon Health and Science University to participate in a bone marrow drive and register with Be The Match®. The initial registration is noninvasive, just a simple cheek swap and some paperwork. Soon, Curtis was notified that he could be a match and someone’s best chance at survival. Over the next few weeks, he had additional testing and received confirmation that he was indeed a near perfect match for a 9-year-old girl with leukemia. Last week he successfully completed a stem cell transplant procedure at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Illinois. While he remains very modest about the entire experience, we are all extremely proud of him for not thinking twice about volunteering his time and undergoing the procedure to help a stranger.
About Be the Match:
For the thousands of people diagnosed every year with life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, a cure exists. Over the past 30 years Be The Match ®, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program ® (NMDP), has managed the most diverse marrow registry in the world. They work every day to save lives through transplant.
Diversity and the Effects of Ethnicity on Odds of Finding a Match:
Many people are not aware how much your ethnicity can affect your chances of finding a match should you need one. When it comes to matching human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types, a patient’s ethnic background is important in predicting the likelihood of finding a match. This is because HLA markers used in matching are inherited. Some ethnic groups have more complex tissue types than others. So, a person’s best chance of finding a donor may be with someone of the same ethnic background.
The U.S.-based Be The Match Registry® is the world’s largest and most diverse donor registry with nearly 12.5 million potential marrow donors. While the registry is diverse, each patient does not have an equal chance at finding a lifesaving match. There are extremely low percentages of people registered within Black, African American, Asian, and Hispanic ethnic communities. This disparity in donor ethnicities may be attributed to distrust of medical systems within these communities brought on by historically traumatic and negative experiences with medical institutions and professionals.
A Personal Perspective of the Experience:
The magnitude of the process is made clear immediately. “You are a potential lifesaving match for a 9-year old female.” “You have the unique opportunity to save someone’s life.”
It was also clear that 1) outside age and gender, you should not expect to learn anything more about your recipient and 2) that there are several steps required to even see if you are the “best match.” Rather than be overwhelmed by the potential I really just tried to focus on my next step in the process. Mostly that meant being somewhere at a given time. A blood draw facility, urgent care, airport, cancer treatment center et cetera. That’s all I focused on, what I’m supposed to do next.
It wasn’t until my donation day that I really grasped the enormity of what was happening. In the elevator, up to my room I was told that my “product was going to Italy.” As my hospital gown was being tied, I overheard the nurses talking to each other. They were on the phone with the girl’s doctor determining how much she weighed. They needed to know her weight so that they could tell the courier when to show up at my hospital room to grab my stem cells and hop on the next flight to Italy. The courier came at 3:11pm and was out the door at 3:12pm.
It was then that I realized I was simply one cog in this intense and complicated process of saving this child. I felt very proud to know that, while this process involved literally dozens of individuals, I was likely the only person in the world who could have done my job.
