Hello!

When I started this blog it was because of a few things I was passionate about – travel. happy families, healthy lifestyles, and serving others through small acts of kindness we can fit into our busy lifestyles. Hence GO LOVE BE! One of the purposes of this blog is to help readers find ways that they can fit service in their daily lives and BE SOMETHING for SOMEONE! Service is the biggest blessing and gift we can give others. There are so many little and big ways we can serve others. The biggest way of all is saving a life!  Did you know you have the POWER to save someone’s life in under 8 hours?

How you may ask?

By being a Stem Cell Donor!

It sounds scary and makes me visualize a painful procedure with days in the hospital with a painful and long recovery.  That is the main way that stem cells USED to be obtained for a stem cell transplant. But this is 2021 (updated!), and medical technology has advanced so significantly. Did you know that for many patients with blood diseases or blood cancers that the only way they will actually SURVIVE and heal is with a stem cell transplant (or bone marrow transplant)? AND did you know that being the donor to give a stem cell donation to someone is usually just as easy as giving blood to someone (in over 80% of cases).  I learned this a few years ago when I started researching Stem Cell Donors for my dad who was fighting a cancer (CLL) that no treatments were working to heal. The doctors said that a stem cell transplant was his only hope. I have a high school friend who had his life saved by stem cells, I had a friend’s child saved by stem cells, and I personally registered to be a Stem Cell Donor almost 15 years ago, but I still really did not know anything about stem cells donation.

So I did my research and learned that:

• Each hour, more than six people die from a blood cancer.
• Every 4 minutes someone in the US is diagnosed with a blood cancer/disease (like lymphoma or sickle cell anemia)
• Testing is painless – a simple cheek swap
•  80% of Donating is through blood collection so little discomfort and recovery time needed

I also learned something really important too – when a patient is seeking a match blood type does not matter, but ethnicity matters! So maybe that’s why even though I have been on the registry for 15 years I have not been called as there are not a lot of Armenian/Polish/Irish people out there on the list!  You don’t know WHO may be needing your exact donor profile to save their life!  Simply go online to https://join.bethematch.org, sign up and they will mail you a short form to fill out and cheek swab and you mail it back! Only 1 in 430 donors are a match with someone in the registry and actually move forward with the process AND if you are a match, 80% of donors just give blood (vs marrow) so very little discomfort and recovery. Would you please take a few minutes that could maybe save a life?

10 Minutes, 3 Seconds = Mouth Swab – 3 seconds, no pain & Paperwork to submit Swab – 10 Minutes (5 out of 5,000 people who swab their mouths will be a match)

5 Minutes = Blood work* – a little pinprick *If a potential match is found (2 out of 5,000 will be a match)

4 hours = Physical – No pain (Physical – 1 out of 12 potential donors pass)

3 hours = Harvesting Stem Cells – A little pinprick like donating blood and no anesthesia or surgery! Your Stem cells replenish in a few days (1 out 5,000 can donate)

7 hours , 15 minutes and 3 seconds of your life could SAVE A LIFE and give priceless unknown hours, days and years to the life of someone else! 

REGISTER TO BE A DONOR NOW!  CLICK HERE!

Patients are searching for a cure. If you are between the ages of 18 & 44, you could be someone’s cure.

Once you join Be The Match Registry®, you will be included in patient searches every day. If you match a patient, you will be contacted to confirm that you are willing to donate. If you agree to move forward, you will be asked to update your health information and participate in additional testing to see if you are the best match for the patient. Pretty easy to be a stem cell donor and save a life!

You could be saving my dad’s life or you could be saving a neighbor’s life or maybe one day someone could save your life!

UPDATE: My dad did NOT find a donor but became eligible for a new treatment and he was able to partake in a trial treatment called CarT which helped cure his cancer although the side effects almost killed him and were very scary! But he is rid of cancer for now and we are so grateful! 

YOU COULD BE THEIR CURE!

Be someone’s cure, Be something greater, Be a lifesaver!