Updated at 1:23 p.m., Sunday, April 15, 2007
Bone marrow drive set for April 28 at Pearlridge Uptown
Advertiser Staff
The Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry at Hawaii Medical Center East will hold a bone marrow drive from noon to 4 p.m. April 28 at Pearlridge Center - Uptown.
The Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry (HBMDR) is now using a new "buccal swab" technique to register donors in Hawaii.
"A swab of the cheek cells inside a donor's mouth is taken, and the sample is collected and then sent to the National Marrow Donor Program repository for testing and storage," said Roy Yonashiro, recruitment specialist at HBMDR. "The registration process is quick, simple and painless."
Donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good general health. Donors need only to register once. If you have already registered and need to update your information or would like more information about becoming a donor, call the registry at 547-6154 or see the national Web site at www.marrow.org
The Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry was founded in 1989 and joined the National Marrow Donor Program to help patients in Hawai'i and all over the world find healthy and willing bone marrow or blood stem cell donors. Only 30 percent of patients will find matching donors within their families; therefore, others need to find unrelated matches.
Matches are more easily found between people of the same ethnic background. Since 1989, the HBMDR has recruited approximately 68,000 registered donors throughout Hawai'i, Guam, and American Samoa. Over 251 of those donors have donated bone marrow or blood stem cells for patients all over the world.
