Every four minutes in the United States, a patient is
diagnosed with blood cancer; that is 360 people a day and 130,000 people each
year. The three main types of blood cancer are Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma,
which attack blood, lymphatic system and bone marrow, respectively. Unlike
other cancers, blood cancers will cause the growth of abnormal blood cells,
which may prevent a person from being able to fight off infections, expediting their
inevitable mortality. The treatment from other cancers though is very different;
a lot of the time to complement the chemotherapy or, in many cases, to replace
it, healthy blood cells can be taken from a donor to replace the sick ones in a
patient. This is where people can run into complications. Unlike normal blood
donations, where two people need just to have the same blood type, in order to
be a bone marrow donor, the two participants must be perfect genetic matches
for each other.
The test to see if you’re are a perfect match for someone is
fast and simple. Cotton swabs are used to swab the insides of your cheek; this
collects stem cells which determine results; the Gift of Life Bone Marrow
Registry provides little envelopes with all the necessary materials needed to
run these tests. Testing one person’s stem cells costs $60, but there are
monetary donors who subsidize this cost for people under the age of 45, paying
the cost in its entirety. I do understand that our money, if we chose to give
to the Gift of Life, would only be able to pay for the testing for maybe two
people, but there’s no way to say that that last person won’t be somebody’s
perfect match.
Jay Feinberg was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991. After
having held bone marrow drives around the country, and having swabbed tens of
thousands of people, it was the very last woman at the very last drive, after
four years of searching, that ended up being a perfect match for Jay. The bone
marrow transplant was a complete success and even after he was better,
continued the search for others, having founded Gift of Life. I had the
pleasure of meeting Jay when he came to visit Binghamton last year and became
inspired by his story. I have since worked with the Gift of Life Campus
ambassadors on our campus, assisting in swabbing hundreds of students. This is
an organization that does great work and has helped save the lives of thousands
of people, I believe it is deserving of a donation from our class.
https://www.giftoflife.org/
Hello Benjamin,
ReplyDeleteI have some experience with this organization. When I went to Israel for Birthright we had someone come in and tell us about Jay’s story. It is a truly moving story and what Birthright does is even more amazing; they did not require us, but highly encouraged us to swab. I was slightly hesitant at first but after some thought there was no reason for me not to participate. The 400 students and I were able to swab free of charge, all subsidized by Birthright. They do this for thousands of other Birthright participants. This simply blows my mind as they are literally helping to save thousands of people’s lives all around the world. I am truly grateful for that opportunity.
I loved being part of this giving circle. And while this may not be a traditional giving circle where we pool money, we technically are pooling our genes for potential matches. This not only benefits others but us as well. If I for example were to ever need a bone marrow transplant or plasma I would be more likely to be able to find a match as I have been in a system for a while. I truly enjoyed your blog post and have even considered being a volunteer ambassador here at Binghamton University. My only question to you is how can we make this more accessible and cheaper to a larger population to help save more lives?
Thank you,
Jacob Croes
Dear Ben,
ReplyDeleteSame way as Jacob, I also have an experience with this organization. Repentantly, I was approached in Marketplace and ask if I wanted to save a life. I obviously said yes and took the test. However, not until reading your post I did the research about the organization. What surprised me the most is their Get Involved page. The organization allows youth such as you and I to organize donor drives, to join volunteer network, to become campus ambassador and many more. One thing is successfully achieving their mission which is saving thousands of lives, but the way they do so is noteworthy. Engaging the youth and using their energy and will power to make a change is something that I will admire about every organization.
Also equally important to mention he level of transparency the organization instantly displays as you enter their website. Their financial information is easily accessible, they have stated their credentials and have a thorough information page about every member of the board.
Thanks for sharing,
Rati Lolashvili
Hey Ben,
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing your incredible charity pitch in class today, I had to come here and read your blog post. I believe that the majority of our class have at least known someone who has been diagnosed with cancer. It truly is a horrible disease. Before your blog post, I had only a vague familiarity with this organization. The simplicity of a cotton swab test really intrigued me. I was curious if you knew the numbers about how many swabs lead to a match. That would be really interesting to know. I'm also interested to learn how involved the Gift of Life is in the matching process. After someone is determined to be a match for a person in need, how does the matching process work? Do they pay all medical expenses for the donor? You said in class that you were matched with someone a few years after you tested. Was that because that other person has just been entered into the system or does it take that long to match people? This organization is very interesting. Your personal story with this organization is inspiring and I hope everything works out with you and your match.
Thanks, David G.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI have to say your presentation in class was very inspiring!!! I wish you such luck and health for your journey of saving this man's life.
On my year abroad I was very lucky to learn from a man named Rabbi Mayer. His friend in high school had passed away and in his memory they began running Gift of Life drives in Toronto, Canada. I remember him telling us about this girl who came to a drive they had set up. He told us that when this underaged girl offered to swab, he thought she was the bravest person he had met. In fact, as you mentioned, she was the last one to come as they were closing the drive down. Lucky enough though, they later found out that the young girl turned out to be a match for Mr. Feinberg. The Gift of Life is an organization that seems brilliantly constructed. However, I am curious if their financial budget plan aligns with their efficiency? Are they mostly privately or publicly funded? Also, do they partner with hospitals across the country or do they function independently? In fact, if you have any access to other resources as a volunteer, I would love to see them.
Since class I also have been very curious of the process, from a scientific perspective, of how a match is found? In class you spoke a bit about the requirement of the tissue in the donor's DNA to match the person who would be receiving it. Do you know which parts of the DNA require similarities?
Thank you for sharing your story with us! I am looking forward to reading everyone's comments (and possibly receiving additional information about the match process, if time allows)...
Best of luck!
Thank you,
Molly S.
Dear Benjamin,
ReplyDeleteYour charity post was very informative and I can tell this is an organization you are passionate and familiar with. The Gift of Life is an accredited 501©3 nonprofit organization with total assets and total liabilities of around 4.4 million dollars. They have registered 293,404 donors, matched 14,857 donors with recipients, and facilitated 3,248 transplants. I was able to find their 990 form on their website and do a small financial health analysis. They appeared to be financially healthy with ratios and metrics that show they have a strong Financial Efficiency, Financial Capacity and important accountability measures in place. While looking at information on The Gift of Life's organizational strength, I also came upon information on the founder Jay Feinberg. The story behind the founding of the Gift Of Life Marrow Registry is extremely interesting, and I believe it continues to strongly influence the organization today. Another interesting aspect of the organization I found intriguing was the fact that they try to focus on registering members of under-represented minority groups that have difficulty finding perfect genetic matches for bone marrow transplants. The organization was originally focused on registering Ashkenazi Jews, whom, due to Holocaust, often times lack extended family connections that generally yield a donor. It was the recognition of this failure of the public and private medical sector to find donors that lead to the nonprofit sector filling this need, with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry.
I find that living organ donation is one of the most important random act of kindness that one can carry out. Throughout my life, I have donated blood to the American Red Cross as frequently as possible. When it came time to decide whether to be an organ donor or not, I chose to be one without hesitation. The ability to save a life in your darkest hour is something that comforts me throughout life. Also, as someone who is genetically Ashkenazi with a small extended family network to steal organs from, I find this organization very appealing. Thank you so much for sharing this organization with the class Benjamin.
Sincerely,
David Engelmann
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2016/223/131/2016-223131232-0e858de4-9.pdf
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Hey Ben,
ReplyDeleteI also have experience with this organization and I really appreciated your charity pitch. Gift of Life has been holding drives around me for years dating back to middle school, high school and now in college. It is such a great organization with such a clear goal and it is so easy to contribute. Getting swabbed literally takes two minutes and every person has the potential to save a life. Every person only needs to be swabbed once in their life and can be called at any time to potentially save a life just like you were. You're doing an incredible thing and it is truly inspiring.