We interrupt our celebrations…

What do a seven-year-old boy in New York, a three-year-old girl in Baltimore, and an eight-year-old boy in Los Angeles have in common? Other than playing games and being with their pets, they are all living on borrowed time. And you may be able to save them.

During Multiracial Heritage Week, we do a lot of celebrating and talk about being multiracial, but we also remind people about becoming bone marrow donors for sick children and adults with blood diseases.

There is a blood cancer diagnosis every four minutes in the United States and every one of us could be the key to saving a life. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 44 can register with Be the Match, to potentially become a donor. Multiracial adults are in high demand.

Approximately 70 percent of patients do not have a fully matched donor in their own family, which leaves them to search the registry. And depending on a patient’s ethnic background, the likelihood varies for finding the perfect match. Most prospective donors are white.

“Caucasians are likely to match 77 percent of the time, African Americans are likely to match 23 percent of the time,” said Amy with Be the Match, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program. “There is no medical reason for that likelihood, it’s just the number of committed donors we have on the registry.” There are no statistics on multiracial patients.

So we interrupt our celebrations to ask you to register with Be the Match and help save lives. Thank you.

You can watch our video “Invisible in Healthcare” here: http://www.projectrace.com/teen-project-race/video/

Project RACE

Project RACE Teens

Project RACE Kids

Project RACE Grandparents

 

 

Photo Credit: ABC News Go.com