I want your bone marrow!
by MeL on February 16, 2008
I like the wicked smilies on the eggs. Taken from here
As for wanting your bone marrow…I just saw an interesting email from NTU/NIE..It’s a general appeal for people to join the Bone Marrow Register. What’s Bone Marrow Register?
Bone Marrow Donor Program (BMDP) – http://www.bmdp.org/
The Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) is a Singapore-based non-profit organisation dedicated to building and managing a Register of Singaporean volunteers who are willing to donate their bone marrow to patients of leukemia and other blood diseases.
Leukemia is a major killer of children within the age group of 0-15 and a bone marrow transplant offers the only hope of a cure for many leukemia patients. However, the odds of matching a patient with his or her siblings are 1 in 4 and for those without a sibling donor, the chances of finding an unrelated match are 1 in 20,000.
How to go about doing it?
The procedure for the HLA typing is very simple.
1) Fill in Registration Form
2) Provide blood sample via finger prick for HLA tissue typing
3) Resume everyday activities. BMDP will call you only IF you are found to be a potential match.
4) IF you are found to be a potential match, you will be asked for more blood samples (2 X 10ml) to confirm match
5) You will be sent for a health screening to ensure you’re medically fit to undergo harvesting
The blood sample collection just takes minutes and is free of charge.
Why do I need your bone marrow?
No, I’m not diagnosed with leukemia. My birthday is coming (tee-hee! international women’s day!) and this one’s on my wishlist. I’ve been blessed with quite a fulfilling life. So this birthday, rather than hankering over my never-ending material wants, which can never be fulfilled this lifetime haha =D, I’m thinking of having adding a little more significance to this important day (it’s IWD afterall!) by doing my little bit for someone else.
To us, it’s just a harmless prick on our fingertips and a little bit of our blood but it goes a long way to helping someone struggling for survival. Don’t wanna sound 伟大 cuz I don’t even know if I’ll help anyone with this little gesture. In this life, there’s too much uncertainties that are beyond our control. At the very least, this decision is something that’s within my control. Who knows what the future brings…it might be a match for someone out there. Or maybe if I’m down with leukemia in the future, this little gesture from someone else will save my life?
Okie…anyone who’s interested and knows me personally, can contact me then we can arrange a time to go down together. Any 路人甲 that happens to bump across this monologue and is interested, can leave a comment to this post too =)
2 comments
I just donated my bone marrow and it was a wonderful experience and an unique way to help someone in a deep and fulfilling way! I hope you get a lot of people to get typed with you. It was about 15 years ago when I was typed and it was worth the wait to finally donate. To read more about my experience, check out my blog at
http://www.syzdekistan.com/2008/01/18/saving-a-life/
Good luck!
by David Syzdek on February 16, 2008 at 2:30 pm. #
Hi David,
Thanks for posting this. I read your entry and it really gave me so much more information about bone marrow donation. While getting tested is pretty much nothing more than a tiny prick, I’ve heard stories about the actual bone marrow donation being very painful. But that’s probably a couple of years back, where technologies ain’t that advanced.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to getting myself registered into the Bone Marrow Registered and hopefully, I’ll be of help to someone else. As of now, I’ve got a friend who wants to go down with me for the testing. =)
by MeL on February 17, 2008 at 3:25 am. #