DEAR FRIENDS,
Sam was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia on December 2006. He had no symptoms and the diagnosis was made after a routine blood test. Sam was enjoying a full life as a serious student, a captain of the Harvard fencing team, a member of the tennis club team and a regular volunteer at the student-run homeless shelter. In addition to academics and sports, Sam has always taken a lot of interest in helping people, including his work at the shelter and as an active tutor for underprivileged kids since high school.
Sam is on medical leave from Harvard where he was expected to graduate with a Physics/Math degree this June. He finished two rounds of chemotherapy at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. His follow-up treatments will be at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. He will most likely need a bone marrow transplant to increase his chance of being cured from this terrible disease. Sam is part Korean and part Caucasian, and this makes finding a match particularly difficult. The donor registry needs more donors of all ethnic backgrounds, but minority and mixed-background donors are particularly needed. Any donor could be a match for Sam. Of course, we do not expect most donors to help Sam specifically, but there are many other patients like him.
How You Can Help:
JOIN THE NATIONAL MARROW DONOR PROGRAM® (NMDP) REGISTRY.
Every day, thousands of patients just like Sam are searching for a volunteer donor--someone like you--who could save their life. It's easy and painless, and involves only filling out a brief form and taking a simple cheek swab. To join the Registry, you must be 18 to 60, in good health and committed to helping any patient in need. There are several donor drives where you can stop by and register in person. Or you can register at anytime from anywhere online.
We encourage you to contact DKMS Americas, http://dkmsamericas.org or 1-866-340-DKMS (3567) for a donor registration kit. Donation is welcome but not required.
If you are fully or partially of Asian heritage, you can register for free at anytime through www.aadp.org (the Asian American Donor Program) or by calling 1-800-59-DONOR for a free kit.
The registration process is very simple. Once you register online, you will receive a kit in the mail. The kit contains everything you need including kit instructions and the consent form. When you mail back the kit, your tissue is typed and we add your name to the Registry. If you are a match, the NMDP will contact you for further evaluation.
RAISE AWARENESS.
OUR FRIENDS.
We are working with the following non-profit organizations to raise awareness and promote bone marrow donor recruitment of all healthy people between 18 to 60 of all backgrounds:
Cammy Lee Leukemia Foundation - http://www.cllf.org
DKMS Americas - http://dkmsamericas.org
The Asian American Donor Program, AADP - http://www.aadp.org
National Marrow Donor Program, NMDP - http://www.marrow.org
We especially urge all Asian and part-Asian friends and colleagues to register as soon as possible. The process takes several weeks and there is no time to lose.
Thank you for your generosity and compassion during this difficult time.
Sincerely,
The Cross/Kim Family