Get Well Wednesday: African-Americans Need Bone Marrow Donors

Too many African-Americans languish on bone marrow donor lists because there are fewer African-American donors. For 8-year-old Darian Smith, that deficiency is a life or death issue. Darian is on the donor list, hoping to find a match, but only if more African-Americans would consider becoming donors.

Darian and his doctor, Alecia Nero, hope that African-American will consider becoming bone marrow donors. One of the common diseases that require bone marrow donors is sickle-cell, a disease that impacts them exclusively.

Darian Smith’s Story:

Darian Smith was diagnosed with sickle-cell disease when he was only two weeks old.
A bone marrow transplant is the only known cure for sickle-cell disease, which largely affects the African-American population. Approximately 1 in every 365 black children is born with the disease.
Since the search for a donor began, two matches have been identified but unfortunately, both were unavailable to donate.
Darian’s family has teamed up with DKMS, the nonprofit leading the fight against blood cancer, to find his lifesaving match and urge individuals to join the registry.
DKMS is an international non-profit that recruits bone marrow donors to provide a second chance at life and raise funds to match donor registration costs.
Approximately every 3 minutes, a person in the U.S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer or blood disorder.
More than 170,000 Americans are diagnosed with blood cancer each year.

70% of blood cancer patients in need of a bone marrow transplant must rely on someone from the national registry as a match.

12,000 new searches for transplants are initiated every year.

Unfortunately, Darian’s background makes it more difficult to find a match.

While patients find the best match in those who share the same ancestry, minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow registry, greatly reducing their odds of finding a match.

African-Americans, for example, make up only 7% of the donor registry pool.

There is an urgent need for minorities to join the bone marrow registry to help save patients like Darian, who desperately want to live a “normal kid’s life.” All it takes to register a simple swab of the cheek.

Registering as a DKMS Donor Is Easy:

One simple swab is all it takes to be a potential lifesaver.

Registering as a bone marrow donor through DKMS is a very simple process:

§he donor journey begins with a swab of the cheek that takes less than 60 seconds and can be the action that leads to a lifesaving transplant.

This can be done at a drive, or by registering online at dkms.org.

Anyone in good general health who is between the ages of 18-55 can register.

You can also visit Darian’s virtual DKMS donor drive to register: https://getinvolved.dkms.org/DarianSmith

Globally, DKMS has registered more than 8 million people.

Local Donor Drive Locations:

Wednesday, April 18 from 3:30pm – 5:30pm – Donor drive at St Philip’s School

Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Dallas, TX 75215

Sunday, April 22 from 2pm – 5pm – Donor drive at Joy Tabernacle Empowerment Center

Address: 3203 Holmes St. Dallas, TX 75215

Dr. Nero answers questions from the text Tom club.

Q: LET’S START WITH THE BASICS. EXPLAIN WHAT SICKLE CELL DISEASE IS AND WHAT BONE MARROW IS?
A: Sickle cell disease is a group of blood disorders of abnormal hemoglobin (oxygen transporter in red blood cells) where at least one of the 2 genes is a sickle hemoglobin. This results in a disease state where red blood cells are prematurely destroyed and medical complications of every organ system. This can be a life-shortening disease.

Bone marrow is the tissue within the bones where the blood elements/cells are made and mature before entering the blood stream.

Q: HOW DOES A BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT HELP CURE SOMEONE WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE?
A: We replace their bone marrow with that of an unaffected donor so their body can then produce the cells of their donor.

Q: EXPLAIN HOW THE NATIONAL REGISTRY WORKS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT FOR MINORITIES TO REGISTER IN PARTICULAR.
A: The national registry allows people to voluntarily provide DNA so they can possibly be a match for someone who is considering a transplant when they do not have a suitable family-related donor.

In the registry, minorities are not well represented. Therefore, the potential for a minority to find a match is much lower than Caucasians. As this can be a life-saving therapy, opportunity for cure is limited for minority patients. We need minorities to participate to give more diversity to the donor pool and afford a higher chance of our patients to find a suitable match.

Q: WHAT OTHER BLOOD DISORDERS CAN BE TREATED BY A BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT?

A: There are several non-malignant blood disorders that can benefit from bone marrow transplants. Sickle cell, thalassemia and some bone marrow failure disorders are some. In addition, the public may be aware that malignant blood disorders can be cured with bone marrow transplants such as acute leukemia.

Q: WHY DOES RACE OR ANCESTRY MATTER WHEN LOOKING FOR A DONOR MATCH?
A: A diversified donor pool does matter in increasing chances of finding a suitable match. When trying to match these genes, we know that minorities are at a significant disadvantage as the donor pool is not nearly as diverse as it should be.

Q: WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS ARE CURRENTLY ON THE DONOR REGISTRY. HOW DOES THIS COMPARE WITH THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE NEEDING DONORS?
A: African Americans only make up 7% of the donor registry pool. African Americans needing donation has increased over years for non-malignant and malignant blood disorders

Q: WHAT’S THE PROCESS FOR REGISTERING TO BECOME A DONOR?
A: It is usually very simple and is painless for registering where donors can submit cheek swab to collect the necessary DNA information.

Q: WHERE CAN PEOPLE GET MORE INFORMATION AND FIND OUT ABOUT BECOMING A DONOR.
A: For more information, please visit www.dkms.org