In June, I submitted my information to register as a bone marrow donor with “Be The Match” after discovering that my donor information wasn’t in the national registry (I registered as an undergraduate but never found out which registry I was with; I always assumed it was the national one). This morning, I received the following email.
Dear Jenn,
Thank you for joining the Be The Match Registry®. You are now an official member of the registry, making you part of every patient’s search for a match.
What’s next:
You will receive your membership card by mail in about a month.If you are a possible match for a patient, we will contact you with important next steps. Please be ready to respond if you are called!
New patient searches begin every day, so you could be a match for a patient soon or many years from now, or you may never be identified as a match for someone. About 1 in 540 members of the Be The Match Registry go on to donate to a patient.
Ways you can stay involved:
- Watch for your monthly e-newsletter for registry members offering information about the donation process, donor and patient stories and updates on our work.
- Update your contact information if it changes, so we can reach you quickly if you match a patient.
- Invite your friends to join the Be The Match Registry:
http://registry.marrow.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ecards_sept2009- Make a financial gift – Your gift will help patients with uninsured transplant costs, support transplant research and grow the Be The Match Registry: BeTheMatchFoundation.org/give
Jenn, welcome to a community of people passionate about saving lives through marrow donation.You are giving patients hope for a future.
Thank you for joining,
Be The Match
