Letter: Marrow drive at HMB Farmers Market,  Saturday

My name is Clayton Hagy. I’m 13 and will graduate 8th grade this year. I’m currently waiting for a bone marrow match because I have biphenotypic leukemia and that’s my best chance for a cure. I wantd to encourage people to become registered through the Be the Match Program (it used to be called the National Marrow Donor Program and if you joined it under that name you’re still in the database). All it takes is a cheek swab and a little bit of paper work to get registered. 

If you’re a match for someone the most common way to harvest stem cells is by running the donors blood through a machine and then back into their body.  It’s out patient and takes about three hours.  You can find out more at www.marrow.org.  **Be the Match will be at the Half Moon Bay Farmer’s Market at Shoreline Station on Saturday June 6th from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m**. adding people to the registry.

If you can stop by, that would be great. Also, please spread the word. There’s a very big need for donors from minorities and mixed races.  Please tell everyone you know. There’s a lot of kids out there who, like me, don’t have sibling donors and need a match from the general pool.  June 8-22 there will be a nation wide Marrowthon trying to add 46,000 new people to the registry.  There will be more drives in the Bay Area as well as other parts of the country.  Thanks for helping get the word out to as many people as possible!