Become a Bone Marrow Donor – Help Nalini Shah!

A friend and a ex-NetIP NA Board member, Sonali Shah, reached out to us to request your help. Her mom, Nalini Shah,  has a life threatening blood disorder. The cause is unknown, and a bone marrow transplant is the only hope for a cure for her disease. The actions of the bone marrow are complex and controlled by many factors. Finding a matching donor for a transplant is not always easy, or even possible.

Since tissue types are inherited, patients from the same race are more likely to find an appropriate match within the same community. Sonali’s family is partnering with SAMAR – South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters (www.samarinfo.org) – an organization that’s mission is to create an informed society of individuals who would make a conscious decision to be committed donors for the national registry (NMDP) and be available to donate blood stem cell/marrow if they match a patient. Currently, the NMDP has millions of donors, but is very underrepresented by South Asians. Today there simply are not enough viable donors registered to help these patients.

Please do consider getting tested to be added to the registry via a simple saliva swab test.

Sonali is trying to increase awareness of the registry and even conduct drives in NY. You can follow dates of the drives and other updates on her facebook group to help Nalini Shah – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105699746625&ref=mf#

Additionally, SAMAR can send you a kit if you would like to become a donor asap. Time is of the essence.

Please do consider this request from a fellow NetIP’er!

Sundip Arora

Vice-President, External Affairs, NetIP NA