How much time do you spend thinking about your bones? If you’re like most of us, the answer is: not much. That’s a good thing. Unless we’ve had an accident that’s resulted in a broken bone, or if we’re of an age (which more and more of us are approaching) where we become concerned about our bones becoming brittle and weak, there’s not much reason to think about our bones. It’s a good bet that we think even less about the marrow inside our bones. But Ira Riklis would like to encourage you to give bone marrow some thought.
Bone marrow produces stem cells which then develop into blood cells. For healthy people, bone marrow is the body’s blood cell “factory.” But for people with diseases such as leukemia and aplastic anemia, the bone marrow stops produce the blood cells that keep us alive. It’s at times like that when people need a bone marrow transplant from a healthy donor to save their lives. There’s no guarantee that a suitable donor can be found, matching bone marrow is much harder than matching blood type. That’s why there’s a national registry of willing donors who send in tissue samples (from a simple cheek swab) that are analyzed and kept on file for the time when someone needs a match. Ira Riklis signed up for the registry many years ago. He knows he will likely never be called, but knows that if he is, he could save someone’s life. You could, too, so why not take a moment to think about becoming a donor. Someone may thank you with all their hear someday.