Ideally, a bone marrow donor is a complete match with the patient in need. The best option is a full blooded sibling from the same two parents, however, in Mary’s case, she does not have one. Then, the next best match would be an anonymous donor or stranger. The last option is to use a biological parent who would only be a half-match. Mary’s mom, Katie, falls into this area of being a “half match”. There are three potential matches at the time of writing this article with one being a 9/10 match and the other two have not come forward and been tested at this time. If not, they will wait until there is a good match, which may result in chemo again later on, or they will try to use her mom’s marrow.
Wondering how you can help? Sign up to be a bone marrow donor. If you are between the ages of 18-40 it is free. If you are over 40, you simply include a $100 donation. A swab will be mailed to your home and you just use the swab according to the directions and return it in the prepaid envelope. Once they receive your envelope you will be added to a database and if you are a match they will contact you.
When asked what he would like people to know that hasn’t been written on their caring bridge page (link can be found at the end of the article) Nathan wrote, “She’s an aspiring artist and musician. She was accepted to Savannah College of Art and Design – SCAD but was going to defer a year to work as a tattoo artist/apprentice. She’s been working on playing guitar and singing some also.”
Imagine for a moment this was your family and someone out there held the key to your loved one’s health in their bone marrow. You could be that person for Mary or one of the many others who are waiting for a match. Every three minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia and you have the opportunity to possibly save the life of someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, or spouse. It only takes a moment to register at https://bethematch.org/
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