Uma's story...

Uma is a six year old - running, jumping, coloring - doing everything a normal six year old likes to do. She was recently diagnosed with Bone Marrow failure aka Aplastic Anemia. This makes her bruise easily and causes all her blood counts to be low, which in turn makes her more prone to infections and anemia. Despite all the poking and prodding with needles she keeps her cheerful smile. Although the current treatment plan is immunosuppressive therapy, the only curative treatment is a Bone Marrow transplant. We have registered with the National Marrow Registry, but it is mostly Eurocentric (over 60% Caucasian). Therefore, we are seeking donors of South Asian origin (from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.), who offer a higher likelihood of a good match for Uma. We need your help.


How can you help UMA

There are many ways:


1. Become a registered bone marrow donor. 2. Email your friends and all contacts.
3. Participate and organize donor drives.

We would be extremely grateful if you could do one or all of the above to help our beloved Uma.

How to Get Involved:


1) Contact a local recruiter by going to www.bethematch.org or calling 1- 800-marrow2

2) If you are eligible, join the National Marrow Registry by giving promo code : SAVEUMA

3) Consider helping in a larger way by hosting a bone marrow drive in your area, at your job, place of worship, school, etc.

Process of Bone Marrow Donation:

The process of bone marrow donation is very simple, non-invasive and totally harmless to the donor. The process essentially involves the following simple steps:

Step 1:

Undergo a mouth swab; NO NEEDLES OR BLOOD. Visit the National Marrow Program website and use promocode SAVEUMA to sign up to get a free swab kit mailed to you.

Step 2:

If matched, provide blood sample for further testing to confirm a precise match.

Step 3:

Final donation process itself is a simple blood donation.


List of Drives

FIRST MEDICAL CARE

Date: 2/27/2011
Time: From 8:00AM - 2:00PM
Location: St. Alphonsa Catholic Church
2536 Lawrenceville Highway
Tucker, GA 30033
Call Sofiya I. Momin : 404-245-9871

More ways to give

    100% of your gift to Be The Match Foundation® goes directly to helping patients with uninsured transplant costs, funding medical research and adding donors to the registry.