Marrow Donor Registry Drive Planned for February 17

Marrow Donor Registry Drive For Troy Mom Planned for February 17

Troy, MI (February 5, 2018): Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer. This time it happened to a long-time Troy resident. Bonnie Burns, happily married mother of two college-aged kids who attended Hamilton, Boulan and Troy High schools, recently received a diagnosis that no one wants to hear: Aplastic Anemia. This basically means that her bone marrow has shut down and is no longer producing vital blood components like red and white blood cells.

Bonnie needs a Stem Cell Transplant, also called a Bone Marrow Transplant. And friends have organized a Marrow Donor Registry Drive for interested volunteers aged 18 – 44 on Saturday, February 17, 2018 from 10 am – 2 pm at CrossFit UnPhased, which is located at 1940 Thunderbird Lane in Troy and owned by Denny Pondo and Travis Heidt.

This is an open house-style informational meeting, where potential donors can learn more about the process—and that hopefully ends with a simple (and painless) cheek swab—which will be tested to determine if a person is eligible to donate bone marrow, and can be placed on the “Be The Match Registry.” Since 70% of people needing a bone marrow transplant do not have a fully matched donor in their family, the registry is in continual need of members who are committed to helping save a life. That means being willing to donate to ANY patient in need, and being ready to follow through if called.

“The process for donating marrow has really improved in the recent past- the procedure is performed with anesthesia and you are home typically the same day,” said registered nurse, friend and marrow registry drive organizer Laurie Emerling. Some describe the feeling as similar to an achy hip but that feeling is short-lived. Discomfort and side effects vary from person to person. “If you think about it,” continued Emerling, “An ordinary person can be a superhero and save a life. That's quite an amazing thing."

To learn more about the donor process or register, join in-person at the donor registry drive on February 17, or online at http://Join.BeTheMatch.org/Michigan18 . Additional questions can be sent to Tarita Gibson, Be The Match Rep at tgibson@nmdp.org, 313-802-1044.

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Photo: The Burns family: Bonnie Burns, Jack Burns, Mac Burns THS 2011 grad, Haley Burns THS 2013 grad