Roni Cohen, just 29 years old, was engaged to marry her fiancé Bar Armon on September 17. But in August she fell ill and her doctor sent them immediately to the emergency room. By noon she was informed she has leukemia, and by that evening she was receiving chemotherapy.

Roni’s life can be saved if we can find one matching donor to give the healthy bone marrow or stem cells that can cure leukemia.  

No matches have been found in the international registry, and her situation is desperate. You may be Roni’s lifesaving match.

Her best chance of a match is with people who share a similar ancestry, which may include one or more of the following:

• Yemenite

• Moroccan

• North African (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia)

All it takes is a simple cheek swab to find out if you’re a match for Roni or another patient in desperate need.

Please help Roni, order your swab kit today by clicking on the link to the upper right.  Contributions are welcome and appreciated to help offset the $60 per kit cost associated with lab processing each swab kit. 

How do I donate?

Donating is an outpatient process, transferring healthy stem or marrow cells from the donor to one recipient in need, to cure the disease. For stem cell collection, you receive five shots of Neupogen to mobilize stem cells into your circulating bloodstream, which are then collected in a process similar to donating platelets. Bone marrow collection takes 1 – 2 hours. While you are under anesthesia, the doctor draws bone marrow from a large pocket located inside your hip bone. No surgery is required and there are no stitches. Stem cells and marrow regenerate on their own in a week or two. Bone marrow donors may feel backache for a day or two.

Why ancestry is important

The factors that determine a compatible transplant match are inherited, like hair and eye color, so the best chance of a match is with someone of similar ancestry.

Roni comes from a Yemenite and North African family.

Thousands of Yemenite Jews fled Yemen during 1949-1950 to escape violent anti-Semitism and have settled around the world. Nearly 40,000 Americans have Moroccan ancestry, according to the U.S. Census of 2000.

If you or your parents or other ancestors are from Yemen, Morocco or the North African region, you may be Roni’s best chance for a cure.

Please order a swab kit and join the registry today.