BAPS Charities holds bone marrow drive June 26
BAPS Charities Organizes Nationwide Bone Marrow Drive
Today, an estimated 750,000 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.
Every day, thousands of patients search the national registry hoping to find a bone marrow donor match, but only some are lucky enough to receive a match and a transplant. In fact, the chance of finding a match can range anywhere from 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 100,000.
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 South Asian community given that so few have registered to be a donor.
“Finding a match for a patient of South Asian decent is very difficult,” said Dr. Paresh Patel, a volunteer helping out at the bone marrow drive sponsored by BAPS Charities in Chicago. “We need to increase the size of the registry in order to increase the chance of survival for everyone.”
BAPS Charities is determined to help close this gap of marrow donors in the South Asian community nationwide. With persistent marketing, community outreach and personal networking efforts, over 4500 individuals registered as donors during BAPS Charities Bone Marrow Drives. Besides registering new donors, a huge emphasis of these drives was to increase awareness of the need for more participation, providing facts and resolving myths regarding bone marrow donations.
“There are often misconceptions about bone marrow drives that discourage people from participating. People think that there will be some sort of spinal tap, etc. But that is simply not the case. It's almost as easy as donating blood,” said Dr. Sanjay Patel, of BAPS Charities. “The donation test itself is just a cheek swab, but could give someone hope and save a life!”
Dr. Sanjay informed that BAPS Charities will be organizing the bone marrow drive from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 26 at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, in Bartlett.
“We expect the community to come out in large numbers, as always, for this humanitarian cause,” he added.
BAPS Charities has treated over 2 million patients worldwide. Through various activities such as, health fairs, bone marrow and blood drives, nationwide walkathons, and disaster relief operations, BAPS Charities sincerely serves the world by caring for individuals, families, and communities.
BAPS Charities is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit international charity organization committed to sincerely serving the world by caring for individuals, families, and communities. It is affiliated with BAPS as an independent charity and social services arm. The 55,000 BAPS volunteers networked in over 3,300 centers around the world provide over 12 million volunteer-hours of service annually.
Among social service charities, BAPS Charities is a well-respected and trusted name. It has amassed over 50 years of firsthand experience in initiating, managing, and sustaining 160 humanitarian operations throughout the world in such diverse fields as: medical services, environmental services, community services, tribal services, and disaster relief services.
For additional information on BAPS Charities and its international and local philanthropic activities, please visit www.bapscharities.org
CONTACT: BAPS North American Headquarters
Phone: 732-777-1414 ex 140
Email: media@na.baps.org
SOURCE: BAPS