Yesterday, a good friend of mine emailed me about a young woman named Michelle Maykin who is battling for her life. Michelle is 26 and lives in the Bay Area. A year ago, she was diagnosed with leukemia. She has endured extensive chemotherapy and this winter, her cancer entered remission. But a week ago, she relapsed.
In order to live, Michelle needs to find a bone marrow donor by June 21, in less than six weeks! That is the earliest that doctors think she will be strong enough to withstand the transplant. Bone marrow donors must be matched, and so far, she, her family, and her doctors have been unable to find a match for her. SHE NEEDS A BONE MARROW MATCH TO SAVE HER LIFE.
To read about Michelle's amazing story, check out her
website. Read her blog, she's truly incredible.
Below are a couple of really simple things that people can do to register as a donor (cutting and pasting from the original email that I got). PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
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Three Things You Can Do
1. Please get registered.
Getting registered is quick and requires a simple cheek swab and paperwork (10 minutes of your time). If you are actually a match, the donation process is VERY similar to giving blood.
We are
currently organizing drives nationwide, and I need you to get
registered by visiting a local drive. Please check our website for
information about drives in your area ( www.projectmichelle.com).
You can also get registered easily by ordering a free home kit http://www.aadp.org/pages/register.php. Please indicate in the additional notes box of your test materials "For Michelle Maykin. To be expedited.".
2. Organize a drive.
At
a minimum, please share this email message with at least 20 people, and
ask them to do the same. Please point your friends to local drives, ask
them to get registered, and organize a drive in their own community.
Please
use the power of your address book to spread this message – today more
than ever before, we can achieve broad scale and be part of a large
online movement to save lives.
3. Learn more
To learn more, please visit (www.projectmichelle.com).
The site includes more details on how to organize your own drive,
valuable information about leukemia, plus FAQs on registering.
Thank
you for getting registered and joining this effort to help Michelle
win her fight against leukemia – and for helping others who may face
blood disorders in the future.
* * * * *
FAQs on Bone Marrow Transplant
How do I know if I'm a match?
If
you are found to be a possible match, you will be contacted by the
National Registry or your local center. You will be presented with the
option of proceeding to the next level of testing.
How my marrow is collected?
The most common procedure is peripheral blood stem cell collection. You are given injections to support overproduction of marrow , which is
then released into your circulating blood. The cells are collected by
removing blood from a vein in your arm during a simple procedure. This
is very similar to donating blood – isn't it amazing that it's that
easy to save someone's life?!