Will You Please Try?

This is a plea that I share on behalf of my friend Melissa. I have posted about her before on here and there are some new developments. You can see Melissa's blog here and her sister Jenn's blog here.

This letter is written by Jenn. I couldn't put it better any other way. So please read and consider... And by all means, please continue to pray for her and her family.



Where do I even begin? My sister Melissa is in increasing pain from the growing tumor and lymphoma. She sounds weak when I speak to her on the phone...possibly from the pain, or the pain meds, or the lymphoma itself, or a combination of the three. She said she literally feels like she is waiting for a new heart or a new lung....that's what it is like to be dependent on the generosity of donors.

I'm not just trying to encourage you to join the National Bone Marrow Registry because it's a wonderful, humanitarian thing to do. I'm asking you this because I don't want to lose my sister.

Out of the 7 million people in our country on the registry, only ONE appears right now to be a possible match for her. And that's not even definite yet. Her nurse just told me that yesterday.THAT is why it's so imporant that I get tons more people to join for her sake right now.

Most people hesitate to become a donor because they think either--
a) it's painful (No pain involved--it's a simple cheek swab.)
b) it's complicated (It's 30 seconds on the internet. We easily spend 30 minutes on Facebook.)

Here is the SIMPLE process:

1) Go to www.marrow.org
2) Click on "Join Registry"
3) It will ask you to agree to terms, give your name, email address, create a password, and give your mailing address.
4) They will mail you a cheek swab kit. You collect the cells and mail it back in.Once they receive and test your sample, it AUTOMATICALLY goes into the system. Then it is immediately checked to see if it is a match.

If you have any questions at all, call 1-800- Marrow2. They are very kind and helpful there. The registration process usually costs $50 for that initial testing, but is FREE now until June 22nd.

There will never be any other cost for you. If you are a match for my sister, her insurance will cover it.Please take a moment to do this for my sister...for her husband who is so in love with her...for her 3 smaill kids who need their mommy...for the rest of us, as her family and friends, who want nothing more but to have more years with her.

Thank you BEYOND words...Jenn