The Glider

Last year at the marrow drive, a lot of people were curious about what happens with DNA once it gets into the marrow registry. The following information describes how a donor is selected from the registry by the patient's doctor:

http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You...ted/index.html

Another way to save lives is through umbilical cord donation. Women who will be giving birth can donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to a public bank at no cost to the mother.

Why does this save lives?...

Turns out, umbilical cord blood is rich with blood-forming cells, which could be used by someone with a life-threatening disease like leukemia or lymphoma who needs a transplant to survive. For more information about how to donate cord blood, check out:

http://BeTheMatch.com/cord

- Tom Wilhelm

One question asked frequently during last year's registry drive was in regards to the actual process of donating - many people wondered if they had to donate marrow at the DefCon drive (the answer is "no" - the drive is to get you into the registry... Marrow is gathered only if you match someone, and only after you've been screened by multiple doctors.

Here's the quick-and-dirty of the steps involved (again, at DefCon, we'll just get you registered... the rest (hopefully) comes later:

http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You...ion/index.html

- Tom Wilhelm (proud donor)

A vast number of people who join the national bone marrow registry do not get selected for marrow donation. However, for those individuals lucky enough to be selected from the registry to donate marrow to someone in need, there are a couple ways to do so. The most common method is Peripheral Blood Stem Cell donation (PBSC). To see a quick video of the process, check out the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bethemat...59/2bTCSslVmKs

The other method is Marrow Donation (which is the method I chose when I donated marrow back in 2004, which was the most common method of the time). This method is seldom done now, because of advantages the PBSC has for the patient... the process can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bethemat...60/YV0_a9y583U

One other video that I would suggest watching explains why you should join the registry...

http://www.youtube.com/user/bethemat.../2/IJ2RsJFGtNQ

... now tell me, are you going to argue with Shaq?!?! >;-)

"Be the Match," the national bone marrow donor program has been gracious enough to return to the conference to conduct another registry drive. The following URLs point to their media campaigns:

Main Site: http://www.marrow.org/
Blog: http://bethematch.typepad.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BeTheMatch
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BeTheMatch
Online Sign-up: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html

Tom, Crystal

Great to meet you both. I really respect the job you did at DEFCON and I really enjoyed hanging out with you guys.

To everyone else.... They will be back doing this again next year, and I would encourage you all to seek them out and sign up. The new methods are much less invasive than in the past for harvesting the cells. Also, there is a good chance that someone you love will need this at some point. This is a great way to pay it forward.

Again, props to Tom and Crystal.

We will be enrolling people for Be the Match marrow registry in the center of the Contest area. The actual process isn't that complicated (mouth swabs), and won't take that much time. I encourage everyone to swing by and find out more about the program, and how you can help. I would also request everyone to spread the word about our effort!

I'll be on-hand to talk to anyone interested in finding out what it is like to have actually donated, so you can know how easy donating marrow to save a life can be!

For anyone interested in following the events surrounding Be The Match after DefCon, here are some links that might be of interest:

Main Site: http://www.marrow.org/
Blog: http://bethematch.typepad.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BeTheMatch
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BeTheMatch
Online Sign-up: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html