ONE Match needs ethnic bone marrow donors – help leukemia patiens like James Erlandsen!!!
ONE Math is launching today at Metrotown in Burnaby BC.
There is a desperate need in Canada to find matching bone marrow donors – especially for ethnic patients.
This is also the dilemma for James Erlandsen, of Chinese and Scandinavian heritage. Earlier this year, James' cousin Aynsley Meldrum contacted me to publish a story about the search for a matching donor for James. As a 18 year cancer survivor, I empathized with challenges that James was going through. I have met James several times and we named him honourary captain for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. Please read my stories about James here: GungHaggisFatChoy :: James Erlandsen – leukemia fighter
Below is a new message from Aynsley Meldrum about ONE Match that she wrote to the Facebook group “Friends of James Erlandsen.”
Wanted
to let you know that there is a new, “fast & easy” system in place
to test your compatibility as a donor of bone marrow and stem cells.
Go to http://onematch.ca
Spend
5mins online filling out forms, then give some saliva samples (NO
NEEDLES!!!!) so that your DNA can be added to the OneMatch registry.
OneMatch
reports that, “Currently OneMatch has an ethnic gap. About 85% of
registered donors are Caucasian, with only 15% from other groups such
as Asian, Indo-Canadian, Hispanic, Black or Aboriginal. Based on
extensive medical research we know that the best outcome for a patient
requiring a stem cell transplant is realized when the donor is someone
in their own ethnic community.”
So please go join, tackle your friends and co-workers and make them join.
More info:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
Peace
Ayns
Hello James,
I can not stop thinking about you ever since I saw your poster at York University, Toronto. There is a great need for European, Arabic, Asian and Africian American.
I hope that your posters have been sent to Universities in Asia. My 5 year old son, Alessandro has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and nor his parents or sister were a match. Are only hope was the registry and this one person saved his life, or he would not be here today. He is also of mixed ancestry. Silician, Acadian, Irish and German. We will pray for you and send you positive thoughts. Please keep believing. I have faith that you will be given your wish. Please visit my son's website and draw strength from this. See his pictures, he is a fighter just like you.
My son's website is http://www.caringbridge.org (type in his name, Alessandro)
Sharon, York University Student
sharonc@yorku.ca