Sydney, Zoe (author), 2015.
My best friend Sydney has always had a passion for helping and working with people who have cancer. She is the type of person who will do everything in her power to raise awareness for a cause, and run fundraisers just to get the word out. This semester Sydney got an amazing internship, with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.
It is sad to say that we now live in a world where cancer has affected our lives in some way. But we do live in a world that is advancing everyday, and have people working everyday to try find a cure for cancer. This month goes to the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.
Leukemia is known as a "random killer"; anyone can get it, at anytime. For many people with Leukemia the cure is a bone marrow transplant. 1 in 200 Americans will receive a bone marrow transplant at some point in their lifetime.
Hearing this I began to wonder, do I really know what Leukemia is. I always knew that it was a form of cancer that affected the blood, and the bone marrow. But that was really all I knew, so I decided to do some research. I went through hundred of links, and read through them to make sure I had clear understanding of what Leukemia was. I found the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society website, which answered a lot of my questions.
Leukemia starts in a single cell in the bone marrow, and then that cell changes to eventually become a Leukemia cell. Once the marrow cell has changed, Leukemia cells begin grow and have a better survival rate than the normal cells. The Leukemia cells reproduce incredibly fast, and start to crowd the normal cells, suppressing the development of the normal cells. There are 9 forms of Leukemia, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), then Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL), Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML), Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML), Large Granular Lymphocytic Leukemia (LGL), and Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm (BPDCN).
Hearing this I began to wonder, do I really know what Leukemia is. I always knew that it was a form of cancer that affected the blood, and the bone marrow. But that was really all I knew, so I decided to do some research. I went through hundred of links, and read through them to make sure I had clear understanding of what Leukemia was. I found the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society website, which answered a lot of my questions.
Leukemia starts in a single cell in the bone marrow, and then that cell changes to eventually become a Leukemia cell. Once the marrow cell has changed, Leukemia cells begin grow and have a better survival rate than the normal cells. The Leukemia cells reproduce incredibly fast, and start to crowd the normal cells, suppressing the development of the normal cells. There are 9 forms of Leukemia, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), then Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL), Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML), Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML), Large Granular Lymphocytic Leukemia (LGL), and Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm (BPDCN).
The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation has over 200,000 registered donors, they have made 12,634 matches, have facilitated 2,951 transplants, have 8 collection facilities, have serviced 45 countries, and held over 7,000 donor recruitment drives.
When someone registers to be donor, they will have their cheeks swabbed and fill out some information bout themselves. A donor will stay on the registry for about 30 years. When someone is called to be a match the procedure is virtually painless. Back in the day the most common way to get bone marrow was to go to the source directly and get the marrow; they would usually drill into ones hip bone while they were put under and get the marrow directly. Now its usually done through a peripheral stem cell collection, which means the donor is hooked up to a machine that filters out the stem cells; this means no down time, and no surgical procedures need to be done.
I have decided to support Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation in a few ways. In December I made a small donation to them. This month I have purchased a hat, and made another small donation. Proceeds from the hat, and my donation will go towards processing swab kits. Each swab kit costs about $60 to process, but that is a small amount to save a life.
Stop, Swab, Go hat (front and back).
You can support Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation by purchasing a hat from https://www.booster.com/giftoflifecsun?type=1&side=front or going directly to their website https://www.giftoflife.org/Public/ContribOnline.aspx
Sources:
https://www.lls.org/leukemia
http://www.giftoflife.org
https://www.booster.com/giftoflifecsun
When someone registers to be donor, they will have their cheeks swabbed and fill out some information bout themselves. A donor will stay on the registry for about 30 years. When someone is called to be a match the procedure is virtually painless. Back in the day the most common way to get bone marrow was to go to the source directly and get the marrow; they would usually drill into ones hip bone while they were put under and get the marrow directly. Now its usually done through a peripheral stem cell collection, which means the donor is hooked up to a machine that filters out the stem cells; this means no down time, and no surgical procedures need to be done.
I have decided to support Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation in a few ways. In December I made a small donation to them. This month I have purchased a hat, and made another small donation. Proceeds from the hat, and my donation will go towards processing swab kits. Each swab kit costs about $60 to process, but that is a small amount to save a life.
You can support Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation by purchasing a hat from https://www.booster.com/giftoflifecsun?type=1&side=front or going directly to their website https://www.giftoflife.org/Public/ContribOnline.aspx
Sources:
https://www.lls.org/leukemia
http://www.giftoflife.org
https://www.booster.com/giftoflifecsun
