March will raise awareness for bone marrow registry

TO THE EDITOR:

Each year, more than 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other diseases that may require a life-saving bone marrow or stem cell transplant. The “Be The Match” registry is the only hope for the 70 percent of patients needing a marrow transplant who do not have a matching donor in their family. Fewer than four in 10 patients receive the transplant they need, oftentimes because no matching donor can be found.

Some of these patients are close to home, like UNC Arts and Sciences Foundation Director Jamie May, who was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2005.

Unfortunately, this issue is even more prevalent in the minority community. This drive is geared toward closing the disparity caused by the lack of minority participation on the registry. It is our goal to target minority populations to increase the possibilities of all patients finding potential donors.

That’s why volunteers from various institutions at UNC, including Phi Gamma Delta, the College of Arts and Sciences Foundation, the UNC chapter of the Student National Medical Association and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have banded together to issue a challenge to the UNC and Chapel Hill communities to join.

Volunteers and organizations at UNC are uniting to challenge 1,000 people from UNC and surrounding communities to join the “Be The Match” registry scheduled for Feb. 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the faculty lounge at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.



Rachel D. Adams
Graduate Student
School of Medicine