A Chance To Save A Life
Tomorrow, December 10th from 8:00 am until 10:30 am and then again from 4:00 until 7:00 pm you have the chance to save a life. A Bone Marrow Drive will be held at Stratford Academy in honor of Cammie McCook.
Cammie is someone I met while I was volunteering for the Episcopal Churches’ Bible School camp, when I was still in college. Her lovely daughter, Evans, was in the class I was teaching. And I would have the chance to see Cammie while my mother was still teaching at Stratford. She is someone who, even though I don’t know her very well, I do admire her greatly. Her personality is one that lights up anyone she is around without fail.
To find out she was diagnosed with leukemia was stunning. I don’t know why it was such a surprise, but it always seems to be the case – at least for me- when I find out someone I know has cancer.
In an email interview with Jaime Kaplan, herself a cancer survivor, I found out that “every four minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer, that’s 360 per DAY.”
Jaime also told me that this “drive was never intended to find a match for Cammie- it was born out of the notion that so many people want to help Cammie, so it was decided to do this drive in her honor and hopefully save lives in her honor.”
Again, there are two times tomorrow:
8 am- 10:30 am will be in the Dorogy Room in the Science Center, enter Stratford and loop all the way around, it’s the last building on the right. Park at the tennis courts, Science Center or Soccer Field.
4:00 – 7:00 pm will be in the cafeteria, enter through the main entrance- across from the Olson Library- and proceed straight back past the auditorium.
This is such a simple act, it’s just a simple cheek swab. No needles. I can say this is 100% accurate because I registered last year. “There is NO charge for those ages 18-44, 45-60 year olds must go to www.bethematch.org and pay for a kit to be delivered. The reason for this- doctors do 90% of their transplants with donors ages 18-44 so the focus is on this age group and getting more people to join,” said Jaime. Also, ” if you have ever registered before, do NOT re-register- this could lead to false hope to a recipient that they have more matches in the registry when it could be 2 of the same person.”
As for if you are a match: ” you could match with someone anywhere in the world, but your harvesting of stem cells or bone marrow would be done close to home, you would not have to travel to where the patient is.”
Jaime continued to say “we will be selling car stickers tomorrow for a minimum donation of $2.00, wristbands will be here in the next week or so and will be a minimum of $5.00 donation. All proceeds will go to the charity(ies) of Cammie’s choice.”
I asked Jaime what else would be important to put in this post for people to know about tomorrows drive?
” Cammie wants to set a record for people being tested for the registry! She is so excited and feels so blessed that her brother Sam is a match but wants to help someone else out there who needs a match.”
