What I Want for Mother's Day

May 11 is Mother's Day (I had to check my calendar for that one), and this is what I want:

No flowers (I have plenty in the yard). No chocolates (I'm trying to lose 20 pounds).

I want Older Son to register for the National Marrow Donor Program as a gift to me.

Not that I will ever have a stem cell or bone marrow transplant (transplants aren't generally used to treat breast cancer), but I know how badly we need to expand the pool of potential donors, especially minority and mixed race donors. And Older Son happens to be Asian (Japanese).

Younger Son, who is white, is off the hook this year, because he is only 17, so too young to register, I believe. I think the only time children are donors is for family members, typically siblings.

I didn't think of this all on my own. Last week I received an e-mail from Susan Hamre of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

Susan wanted to tell me about an effort called "Thanks, Mom."

She wrote, ... our hope is to bring 46,000 people to the national registry in just the two weeks surrounding Mother's Day. For thousands of patients living with diseases like leukemia, finding a match on the Registry is their only chance of long-term survival.

I have a couple of questions for Susan, which I am going to e-mail her:

1. Is it true that people who register for the NMDP have to pay a fee?

2. How much is the fee?

3. Do you think more people would register if there was no cost to potential donors?

Of course, if Older Son agrees to register, I'll pay the fees for him.

To learn more: www.marrow.org

See also:

More on Mother's Day

Mother's Day: Minority and Mixed-Race Donors--Step Right Up!

The photo is of Older Son at age 6. He is now a very handsome 23-year-old business student at the University of Washington, set to graduate this June.

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.

Comments

[debutaunt]

You are so my psychic soul sister. I just posted on this yesterday.

No fee from May 5-19th for the drive, btw. Generally it's about $50 to do the tissue type testing.

There were breast cancer patients on my transplant
floor who had cancer that had metasticized into their bones.

I wrote a whole post on this if anyone wants to check it out (also a link to the month I had my transplant)

Love you!

[jeanne]

Debby--that's so great. I will link to your post, which I hadn't seen when I wrote this. (Psychic, indeed.)

I've e-mailed my sons about this, but haven't heard back yet.

I do know one woman who had a transplant for breast cancer, but (at least in Seattle) they aren't doing it anymore--I forget all the reasons.

Love right back at you!

[MaryM]

Both of my sons are registered. They did it for their father.

I hope that they will never need to donate, not for their sake, but because it's a pretty extreme way to get cured from cancer. Like weeding your garden with a steam shovel instead of a trowel.

It's like a total reformat of your hard drive.

[jeanne]

Mary--I agree about how tough the treatment is (transplant). Knowing what I know now, I would never have one. But everyone makes different choices for different reasons. Debs had a 5-yer-old daughter when she was diagnosed with leukemia ... so of course she did the transplant.

[jeanne]

A message from Debutaunt, to Older Son:

"Please tell your son that most likely he will never be called to donate stem cells.

"But if he ever is, we will spoil him like the dickens!! My brother is a superwimp and he went back to work the next day (after driving about 200 miles the same day he donated the cells - through apheresis)."

[Tim]

Oh, you KNOW there was no way I was going to end up not registering for the donor list! It took all of about five minutes and I expect my kit in the mail within the next week.

Heck, I am going to get spoiled just for registering. I can't imagine what will happen if I ever actually get called upon to donate! :)

[jeanne]

To Tom, the debu__sweetie: Tim, so glad you went ahead and registered! Good for you.

I would too, but of course no one wants to transplant cells from someone who is living with cancer.

Although, if I remember right, my doctor said he knew of only one case where cancer was transmitted through a blood transfusion, that wasn't a stem cell transplant of course.

[Debbie]

Jeanne, I just started reading your blog and want to thank you for sharing so much. Your giving back to others is such inspiration to me (as a cat lover, the fact that you foster kittens is an added bonus).

Publicizing the Marrow Donor program is wonderful. I'm on their list, and a friend actually donated several years ago. I'll be sure to pass word of their program on to others as well.

[Monica]

Hi Jeanne,

I registered with the National Marrow Donor Program some time ago...and, for me, this comes under the subject line of "Things I Do Because I Can." I'm healthy and able-bodied and like many people, don't think anything about it on a day to day basis...and in the insanity of today's multi-tasking, whirlwind lifestyles, it's easy to forget that something relatively small in your life can make a huge difference to someone else.

I'm half Japanese and when I read that there was a shortage of Asian potential donors in the registry, I checked into it and then went and got typed and had my name added to the list.

And for the amount of time (little), money (not much) and discomfort (minor) it took for me to be added to the registry, this action could mean a longer and better life for someone else.

If I should actually be called and then be a match for someone, again, the minor inconveniences it would mean to me are nothing compared to what it could mean to the recipient.

Thanks for posting this information on your blog; a little awareness can go a long way!

[amy]

Thank you for this. What a great mother's day gift for me too. My husband had a stem cell transplant in July for a t cell lymphoma. He didn't need a donor; thankfully he was able to harvest and use his own stem cells. But they did look at the registry in case, and if he ever needs another, that's the route we'd take. I had no idea about this program. Thanks again. By the way, now Mother's Day is as pink as October. All the baseball players have armbands, pink bats, etc.

[jeanne]

Amy--this gift is for you too.

How have things been for all of you? Haven't heard from you lately. Please catch me up, either in comments or with an e-mail. Hugs,

Jeanne