Sunday, March 23, 2008

What did you do this weekend?

Yesterday, Ethan and I added ourselves to the national bone marrow registry, and you should too.



Wanna be sure that if there is someone out there whose life you can save....you will be notified?? Now I know. If I can save a life, I will be given the chance to do so. Pretty cool, huh?

It costs $25-50 to be put onto the registry, and you stay there until you are 61. If a match comes up, they contact you and you learn a lot more about the process and have the opportunity to change your mind if your circumstances or health no longer make this a good idea. The odds of someone matching you are very small.....but how cool would it be to be able to donate!?

4 comments:

Sabrina said...

Well that's wonderful but... you PAY to be added to this registry? You could be giving the gift of life to someone, this registry is available to them, and YOU pay to be added? That seems.... odd. You pay to be added, but the chance that you'll ever be able to donate are slim. Sounds like a clever money maker to me... What am I not understanding?

alyca said...

Yes, you pay to be added. The bone marrow registry is a non-profit sort of thing. They get some funding (which is why Ethan does not have to pay--they are desperate to sign up minorities--over 75% of the people on the list are white), but the rest is paid for by volunteer registrees. The cost covers the tissue typing, the maintainance of the list with contact info, etc. Pretty small fee when you think of all of that. If a match ever comes up, the registration people contact me and connect me with the team for the person I match up with. From there on out, the fees are all paid by the insurance for the person receiving the marrow (a lot cheaper for them to pay for removing my bone marrow than to pay for a slow expensive death from leukemia).

Basically, I pay to cover the cost of testing my tissue. This is through the Puget Sound Blood Center, part of the American Red cross. A totally non-scam sort of thing.

Davinie Fiero said...

Very cool! Especially since you got Ethan on there, a minority.

Sabrina said...

Well that's good. I guess I just think of it like donating blood.. and would feel kind of weird paying someone to donate, you know? I'm already donating the blood! But good for you two!