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African American Marrow Connection
Be The Match!
Every day, thousands of patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases hope for a marrow donor who can make their transplant possible. 70% of patients do not have a donor in their family. They depend on the Be The Match Registry. They depend on people like you.
Patients are more likely to find donor matches within their own racial or ethnic background. For African Americans specifically, we have more genetic diversity than any other race. However, the number of black donors on the national registry is still low. Registration is free, easy and painless (just a cheek swab).
As you search for your past, someone else is searching for a future. YOU COULD SAVE A LIFE!
Be The Match Registry is the new name of the National Marrow Donor Program Registry®.
Akiim DeShay (center) is the owner of BlackBoneMarrow.com. Three days after Thanksgiving in 2003 he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. After chemotherapy failed his only hope was a bone marrow transplant.
He only has one sibling Rashaan (right) and with odds only being 30%, she was a match. He received his transplant on
Good Friday 2004. In 2007 realizing he would be dead without it, he began advocating for those who cannot find a match and started BlackBoneMarrow.com.
Karen Drayden from Dallas Texas is a 25 year veteran of the United States Postal Service. In early 2009 she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. After initial chemotherapy and a relapse, it was determined that her best chances of survival would be a bone marrow transplant. With out a matching sibling it was an extra hard blow to find out there was no one on the registry who matched her tissue type.
After several more months of chemotherapy and a couple of relapses a partial umbilical cord match was found for her. However it was determined that the levels of leukemia cells were too high for her to undergo the procedure. Karen says “I am truly sick and this illness is winning but I am trying all I can so that doctors can learn more and help the next resistant patient and it saddens me” (Jan 15, 2010). Keep her in you prayers for a miracle.
Jaden Hilton (2003-2007)
3yr old Jaden of New Jersey needed a marrow transplant to survive Leukemia. Unfortunately, his brother was not a match for him. Due to the lack of donors within the bone marrow donor pool, Jaden lost his battle to leukemia on January 29, 2007. His father Rodney has been on a crusade ever since to pass Jaden's Law, so that other fathers will not have to go through the same.
African American Marrow Connection
How Being Black Can Save A Life
NMDP Volunteers: Sigma Gamma Rho
Dallas, TX
Dallas, TXHaving A Baby Can Save a Black Life
In the past, when a baby was born, the umbilical cord was thrown away. But today, blood from the umbilical cord can be collected after a baby's birth and donated to a public cord blood bank to help someone with a life-threatening disease. In 2008, 42 percent of all African American (blood stem cell) recipients received cord blood transplants.
Like bone marrow, umbilical cord blood is rich in the blood-forming cells that can be used in transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and many other life-threatening diseases. (These cells are NOT embryonic stem cells.)
More publicly donated cord blood units and adult donors are needed, especially those from racially and ethnically diverse communities, to help increase the likelihood that all patients will find a match.
Morrow Registry
Donor Center
Other Black Organizations
aclt.org - African Carribean Leukemia Trust
nationalmottep.org - National Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program
Black/Minority Marrow Organizations
JesUs4Jackie.com - St Louis
BriaTChism.org - Raytown/Kansas City
Preserve Our Legacy INC - New York
Gift of Life Online - Syracuse
BoneMarrowWish.org - Detriot
MarrowForLife.org - Atlanta
gglf.org - Las Vegas/ Atlanta
Connect with the movement
Jennifer Jones Austin of Brooklyn, NY is a wife and mother of two children. She is suffering from Leukemia, and is in an immediate need of a marrow transplant. Without it doctors have indicated that her chances of survival are slim.
Seun Adebiyi just graduated from Yale Law School and is trying to make history as the first Nigerian delegate to compete in the Winter Olympics. To succeed he will have find a donor for a bone marrow transplant
Harold “Maurice” Broadwater, of Syracuse NY, a loving husband and father of two who is battling Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. Maurice’s only chance for survival is a marrow transplant, but there are currently no matches for him on the donor registry.
Dallas - Atlanta - Chicago - New York
Walk-a- thon - Entertainment - Health Fair
June 2010 - Registration begins in March
Be a part of this historic event
