First-ever World Marrow Donor Day to be held September 19
Jun 25, 2015 by Gift of Life
News
Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW) and the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) recently announced that a record 25 million people worldwide are currently listed as potential volunteer marrow donors in hopes of saving the lives of those battling life-threatening blood cancers and diseases.
In honor of this milestone, WMDA has initiated a new movement, World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD), to raise awareness about blood stem cell donation among the general public. WMDD will be celebrated annually on the third Saturday of September and will begin in New Zealand and end in Hawaii.
This year’s WMDD will be held on September 19 and focus on thanking those that have registered and donors for donating and saving lives. In addition, the international exchange and cooperation between organizations worldwide will be celebrated. Gift of Life will participate in the celebration by hosting one donor drive in the 48 contiguous United States.
"As a 20-year bone marrow transplant survivor myself, I can think of no greater gift one human being can give to another than the gift of life,” said Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation Founder and CEO Jay Feinberg. “It only takes one person to save a life, and it could be any one of us. I encourage everyone, everywhere to help us cure blood cancer through marrow donation."
Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed with a blood cancer. A marrow or stem cell transplant is a potentially life-saving treatment for more than 70 different diseases, including leukemia and lymphoma. Other diseases include aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, inherited immune deficiency disorders and inherited metabolic disorders.
The importance of adding more potential marrow donors to the worldwide registries is underscored by the constantly increasing use of transplants as a treatment for a wider range of diseases. An exponential rise in all types of blood stem cell transplants, particularly from unrelated donors, has occurred since the first successful unrelated transplant in 1973. Today, unrelated transplants are often as successful as those that use sibling donors.
The BMDW global database provides a unique service to transplant centers and registries searching on behalf of patients from around the world who are trying to find the best match for patients in need of a life-saving blood stem cell or marrow transplant and who do not have a matching sibling. Gift of Life is proud to be part of this unique international network in the United States.
