Join the Marrow Donor Program
Host a Registration Drive
When a friend, family member, or loved one is searching for an unrelated marrow donor we often ask, "What can I do?" By hosting a donor registration drive, you are helping to educate and recruit donors who can help patients all over the world.
When you run a drive, you are recruiting donors for the NMDP Registry. These donors must be committed to donating to any anonymous searching patient, anywhere in the world. These donors go into the national registry and are not joining solely for one patient. Families must be willing to explain this fact to the donors they recruit. It is always our hope to find a match at a patient focused drive, but that likelihood is small.
Dana-Farber's Donor Center runs marrow drives throughout New England. We have run drives at corporations, schools, churches, synagogues, community centers, festivals, hospitals, and on Dana-Farber's own Blum Resource Van.
If you are interested in running a marrow drive to register donors with the NMDP, please contact Diane Gemba, Recruitment Coordinator, at (617) 632-5847 or diane_gemba@dfci.harvard.edu
If you are interested in holding a drive for one patient only, please contact Tepnel Lifecodes, a private company, who will help facilitate that drive. The donors they recruit will not go into the unrelated donor registry. Tepnel Lifecodes can be reached at (800) 915-3695 or www.bonemarrowtest.com.
Patients and families looking for information on Marrow/Stem Cell Transplantation should contact the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Dana-Farber.
The National Marrow Donor Program has received funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) to do recruitment of police departments, fire departments and college or university recruitment as long as funding is available until September 30, 2006.
If you know of anybody in the above groups that would like to have a marrow drive, please contact:
Diane Gemba, Recruitment Coordinator
(617) 632-5847
diane_gemba@dfci.harvard.edu
