William K. Wolfrum

My Mom woke up the other night at 3 a.m. Which meant my Dad was awoken by her at 3:15 a.m. She was worried about the upcoming bone marrow drive. Would we have enough seats? Were we prepared? Was everything going to run smoothly?

My Dad asked her why she was worrying about it when the only responsibility she was given for the drive was to be there. She was just worried, she said, and ended up falling back to sleep at around 4 a.m.

So it’s good to see my Mom is really back to her old self. Because that’s what she does. She worries. To say she was a control freak would be just a slight understatement. But such is her way, and that she’s looking for things to control means she must be feeling well.

The Bone Marrow Donor Drive is tomorrow, and is sponsored by the National Marrow Donor Program. It’s been a moderate amount of work to put together at worst. It really hasn’t been a chore, especially because it was easy to get a place to host it - that place being the California Route 66 Museum.

We’re hoping to get a lot of people registered, but we’re being realistic. Whatever happens happens and won’t be due to a lack of effort. We got the word out for this event.

But I’ll be spending the rest of my life getting the word out that people need to get on the Bone Marrow Donor Registry.

Yesterday I spoke with Emru Townsend, who suffers from the same type of leukemia as my Mom but with a couple bonus ailments, and he said something that really hit home.

“Were you like me when you found out about this?” he asked. “Were you just wondering why everybody hasn’t signed up to be a donor?”

And it’s true. It requires very little. While there is a normal fee of $52 for tissue typing, that fee can usually be worked around. By working with the National Marrow Donor Program, I got our fee knocked down to $20. Plus minorities are free. Plus if you don’t have $20 to spare, you can still sign up.

To get on the registry requires just a painless swab from the inner cheek. To be a donor requires a minor procedure that is akin to getting a cavity filled. Assuming the cavity was located in your lower back, of course. There are potential complications. But there are potential complications in crossing the street, and lots of people seem willing to do that every day.

So hopefully tomorrow will be a glorious day where hundreds of people register and my Mom’s perfect match will be found. But even if not, the word is getting out a little more and there will be a few more people on the registry.

There are thousands of people looking for the perfect match so they can receive a bone marrow transplant to live. My Mom is just one of those people, as is Emru Townsend. But there are thousands out there, and your bone marrow may be what they need to live.

So please, wherever you are, join the bone marrow donor registry. You may give someone the gift of life. And pass the word along. Thanks.

Bill

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Life and Such, Leukemia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.