Needed: healthy people ages 18-44 to help save lives. Come out to O’Leary’s Restaurant & Pub this Thursday evening, March 29th, between 5pm-8pm and join the marrow registry to see if you match a patient with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell, or another life-threatening disease that can be successfully treated with a marrow cell transplant. Blood forming stem cells from an unrelated donor is the only hope for survival for over 10,000 patients each year. Most people do not have a match in their family.
To join the Marrow Registry, fill out and sign registration form. Swab your cheeks. It takes 10 minutes. Update your contact information so the registry can find you if you ever come up as a possible match for a patient. It’s that easy. O’Leary’s will be offering a FREE appetizer buffet to everyone who signs up!
If you are the one to match a patient, you will undergo careful medical screening to make sure it’s safe for both you and the patient. No more painful shot in the hip like you see in the movies. They give you a medicine to increase your production of bone marrow. You then have so much running around your bloodstream that they can draw it out of your arm like giving blood or plasma. The less common surgical procedure is performed under anesthesia, so you don’t feel it.
If you want to help and don’t meet health or age guidelines: Make a tax-deductible contribution to the Red Shoe Run to help pay for those unable to pay the $100 it costs to add each new member to the marrow registry.
Get involved today and help your friends, family, and neighbors receive the treatment that is now medically available, if only a donor can be found. Contact Margaret Shannon, mshannon@rrvbc.org, 815-961-2341 for more information or go to www.redshoerun.org to contribute or learn more.
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