Image Source By: bethematch
I have a student (we’ll call him Jacob) who is fighting cancer, and has been for months now.
He’s a tough young man with an awesome attitude about his treatment, and as we approach a blood drive and fundraiser, news comes that Jacob may need a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. What’s so extraordinary about this news is simply that someone walking around the U.S.A. right now likely has the biological medicine (read that as “cure”) to fuel Jacob’s key treatment.
The cure to Jacob’s or someone else’s life threatening disease could be within your body. And, to save a life, all you have to do is go to www.BeTheMatch.org and agree to mail a swab rubbed inside your cheek to the folks who run the program. The program staff analyze the swab, and subsequently checks a database for matches to those people in need of bone marrow, or more, likely blood plasma.
It’s not likely that any of us will save someone’s life by pulling an unconscious person from a burning inferno. But the opportunity to save a life in this regard takes little effort. The harvesting of blood plasma–which is the most widely used treatment–is akin to donating blood. So, my highest hope in writing this blog is to encourage each reader to take action – that is, get your cheek swabbed. It may end up being be the best thing you’ve ever done.
Christi
Hi CJ, it was such a pleasure meeting you and your daughter yesterday at the blood drive for Jacob. I know Marita was so excited yall came. Thanks for donating.
Christi Meador