Have you ever donated blood (and if not, why not)? Even if you haven’t, you likely know someone who has. But few people are aware of the need for bone marrow donors. Bone marrow transplants are still a relatively new procedure in the medical world. But over the past few decades, they are becoming more commonly used to treat diseases once thought incurable. While bone marrow transplants now save thousands of live each year, seventy percent of those who need them never receive one because a suitable donor can’t be found. That’s why Ira Riklis has registered in a national registry as a potential bone marrow transplant volunteer.
Registering to done bone marrow is different from giving blood in that you’ll more than likely never be called upon to actually make a donation. Bone marrow tissues must be closely matched between donor and recipient. For a transplant to succeed, doctors search through a database of tissue types to find a match. If match can’t be found, the patient can’t be treated. That’s why Ira Riklis encourages others to join the list of potential donors. The more there are, the more likely it is that matches can be found,