Why Bone Marrow Donors Are Needed
Every year more than 12,000 patients in the U.S. are diagnosed with blood disorders such as leukemia or lymphoma. A good percentage of those patients are children, for some of those children, bone marrow or cord blood transplant offers the best chance to find a cure for their life-threatening disease.
The Icla da Silva Foundation works on diversifying the registry to help more children, by conducting bone marrow drives throughout the country in order to add more donors into the Be The Match Registry. As a result of The Icla da Silva Foundation’s hard work, more children are able to find a suitable match within the registry. Because children often tolerate a transplant better and recover more quickly than adults, they are less likely to have transplant complications and have a better quality of life post-transplant.
Children with blood disorders are exempt from partaking in many activities that healthy children normally do. Every day without a transplant equals them a missing milestone of their childhood. Their lives could go back to normal if only they could find a committed suitable match and receive a bone marrow transplant.
The Icla da Silva Foundation calls out the community to step up and register as committed bone marrow donors by attending a live drive or visiting the link https://bethematch.org/ to register online. Upon registering online, a buccal swab kit will be sent to your home. With quick buccal swabs, you can be a hope for a child’s life. You can also attend a live drive close to you, a list of live drives can be found at https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/participate/attend-an-event/.