Be a Donor

 

UPDATE: Jax found a perfect match, but there is a possibility that if his first bone marrow transplant doesn’t work they will need to go back to the registry for a new one. So please consider becoming a donor! 

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about what happens next when we get to Minnesota. My mom told me that the first thing they will do is try to find a donor for my bone marrow transplant. I don’t have a match yet, but maybe you can help me?

The University of Minnesota will do tests to see who’s a good match for me and then they’ll test all of the people in my family who want to help me to see they can be my match. Usually siblings are the best matches, but so far I don’t have any brothers or sisters. If they can’t find a match from my family, the University of Minnesota will search in the database of the National Bone Marrow Registry.

This is the part where you can help! If there are more people in the registry then the chances of finding a match for me get better and better. And you know what, even if you don’t end up being a match for me, you could be a match for another little boy or girl who also needs help from really nice people like you.

If you think maybe YOU could be my match (wouldn’t that be cool?!) and you are between the ages of 18-60 then you can sign up for the registry at a website called ‘Be the Match‘. If you fill out a form, they will mail you a testing kit that you can do at home and then you send back to them. And it’s totally free! Or you can add a donation to the ‘Be the Match’ program if you would like.

You can learn more about being a bone marrow donor by clicking here: http://BeTheMatch.com/.

Thank you again – knowing that so many of you would like to help me or other kids in this way really makes my day!