Oh, I am so sorry you are dealing with this. Anyone who can, PLEASE consider registering with
BeTheMatch.org!!
Many leukemia patients require a bone marrow transplant to have any chance of survival. A good sibling donor is often the best match, but many patients do not have an eligible, matching sibling and depend on finding a match in the donor registry.
There are some age restrictions on who can join the registry, those under age 44 are preferred.
The donation process is pretty painless for the donor. You'll probably need to have injections of a drug that stimulates your body's production of stem cells for a few days, and then the actual donation is like donating blood or platelets.
What the gift of your donation means to the recipient is priceless- you are giving them a chance at survival. When a patient is at the point that they need a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant, they have exhausted other treatment options.
I lost my husband to leukemia two months ago.
After a difficult battle with multiple forms of chemo and remissions and relapses, he did have a bone marrow transplant in February. He was very lucky because one of his brothers was a match and was his donor. The day we got the news of that match and the day the transplant was performed were very happy and optimistic days. It meant he had a chance.
Although his disease was too aggressive to survive and he lost his battle, that transplant gave him more time and we are grateful for that. During his hospital stays, we met MANY survivors who owe their lives to donors found through BeTheMatch: children, teenagers, young parents, older people, grandparents.
Please check into registering. You could be someone's hero.
