On May 13th, doctors at Stanford Hospital told Nick Glasgow that he has a 0% chance of finding a donor, given his unique ethnic make-up of ¼ Japanese and ¾ Caucasian. Seriously? 0% chance to find that mix? I challenge you to give this man a chance and find a match.
The links have been a flurry around this, and for good reason. A good man has been given a chance which I urge us to invest a moment of our lives to try to help save a life.
— Any person whose ethnic background is a mix of Asian and Caucasian, and is in good health with no history of cancer or major illness, and is between the ages of 18 and 60, is a potential donor for Nick. Expanding on the initial information, one does not need to be 75% Caucasian and 25% Asian — any potential mix could work. While the most likely match would be from a person who is 75% Caucasian and 25% Japanese, it is absolutely possible that other combinations of Caucasian-Asian background in different proportions could work. The Asian background should be Sino-Asian, rather than Indo-Asian. Finding an ideal match with all of Nick’s markers is very difficult, and we do not want to exclude any potential donors.
— Go to the “Be The Match” National Marrow Donor Program at http://www.marrow.org/. Rather than ordering a test kit (time is too critical for that), read the facts about donating and then you can register yourself and enter your zip code at http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_in_Person/index.html to find drives in your area in the next few days. If there is not a local drive in your area within the next few days, please call one of the labs listed and request a time to drop in for urgent testing. (These instructions apply to people in the US. Other countries have similar programs.) People who join the registry can help any person, not just Nick.
— The test is a simple cheek swab. The actual donation can be a blood draw or a more complex procedure, which would have some side-affects from which people bounce back quickly. This link has facts about the procedural aspects of bone marrow donation:
http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Myths_%26_Facts_about_Marrow_Don/index.html.If a qualified donor is identified and medical or travel costs are an issue, this will be taken care of.
— Special drives for Nick are also being arranged for the next few days. We are looking at possible locations where a drive could facilitate good numbers of potential donors (San Francisco/San Jose area, the Boston/Hopkinton area, and Orlando, where EMC World is taking place this week). Carol Gillespie at the Asian American Donor Program (AADP) is providing testing if you are located in the Bay Area in California (all ethnic minorities and Caucasians wishing to join will be asked to pay a portion of their testing costs, $25). Please contact AADP directly at 1-800-593-6667 and speak to anyone on the staff if you are local, to have your testing done more quickly .
— If you get tested, it is important that you expedite the process by sending anemail to all three people in the cc line on this message:
Donor Search Difficult for E. Bay Leukemia Patient
If you meet the criteria above, or if you know someone who does – Step up, save a life.
