BAPS Charities Bone Marrow Drive, Toronto, Canada

 

June 25, 2010 Toronto, Canada BAPS Charities organized a successful Bone Marrow Drive in partnership with the Canadian Blood Services in Toronto on June 25, 2010 which attracted 45 new registrants. Today, an estimated 750,000 North Americans live with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma and someone new is diagnosed with one of these cancers every 5 minutes. While researchers have spent years trying to find a cure for these cancers, bone marrow transplants are one of the few procedures that have provided hope to patients. Patients needing a bone marrow transplant are most likely to find a match with someone from their own ethnic group.  This poses an additional challenge for the Indo-Canadian community given that so few have registered to be a donor.  “Finding a match for a South Asian patient today is very difficult,” said Dr. Kishan Patel, a volunteer helping out during one of the bone marrow drives sponsored by BAPS Charities in Toronto. We need to increase the size of the registry in order to increase the chance of survival for everyone.” Hailu Mulatu, Coordinator of Canadian Blood Services, offered his appreciation to the volunteers of BAPS Charities for organizing this drive which attracted new registrants from the Indo-Canadian community which will save many lives. BAPS Charities is determined to help close this gap of marrow donors in the Indo-Canadian community nationwide. With persistent efforts, marketing, community outreach and personal networking, BAPS Charities has helped to register close to 400 Indo-Canadians as potential donors over the past three years.  Besides registering new donors, a huge emphasis of these drives has been to increase awareness of the need for more participation, providing facts and resolving myths regarding bone marrow donations.