Marrow Drive Volunteers

Primary contact:  Lane Wilson jwltyf@mizzou.edu

Tables and chairs:  Alex Zweig and Meryl Sundy

Flyers (also helping with tables and chairs):  Kendal Geno and Janelle Riley

Campus group contact:  John Cummins

Various:  Taylor Collier, Veronica Conaway, Shannon Hutson

Staff at drive:  lots of pre-med students

Health Screening at the Harbor House

FMIG continued its commitment to service last week (9/15/10) at the Harbor House.  The Columbia, MO Harbor House is a Salvation Army-funded shelter that provides recovery & work programs, as well as emergency and transitional housing.  Every other month, Harbor House welcomes a service team from FMIG to provide blood sugar and blood pressure screenings to its residents.  On Wednesday, we had a great time, and saw about 30 residents and their children.

Special thanks to Kate Williams, Joedd Biggs, Kristina Anderson, and Suman Vaddi for their time.

FMIG Leadership 2010-2011

Chairs:  Trevin Mayabb, Linsey Monaghan, and Amanda Shipp

Secretary:  Marianne Lopez

Treasurer: Rebekah Nevel

Service Chair: Bridget Gruender

AAFP: Ashley Millham

M4 representatives:  Sarah Bradley, Emily Orscheln, Lincoln Sheets, Lane Wilson, Haley Wolf

M3 representatives:  Natalie Abert, Kristina Anderson, Blake Corcoran, Kristen Cozad, Rehab Mojid, Vanessa Welbern, Kate Williams

M2 representatives:  Taylor Collier, Kendal Geno, Janelle Riley

M1 representatives:  Veronica Conaway, John Cummins, Chase Ellingsworth, Shannon Hutson, Meryl Sundy, Kevin Walker, Alex Zweig

Bone Marrow Drive

The bone marrow drive has been officially scheduled for October 13th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm in the hospital lobby.  We will need at least 5 volunteers at the event at all times.  We also need help with set-up and clean-up.

About the Be The Match Registry (formerly National Marrow Donor Program Registry):

• There are over 7 million people on the registry.
• Minorities are underrepresented on the registry.  As much as 80% of African-Americans who need a bone marrow transplant never find a match.
• When people on the registry are called and told they are a potential match for someone needing a bone marrow transplant, more than 50% back out and do not donate.

About joining:

• A simple cheek swab is needed to join the registry - they will use the sample to determine your HLA type
• Once you've joined the registry, you will be on it until your 61st birthday unless you remove yourself (which you can do at any time) or develop a medical condition making you ineligible for donation.
• You can't join if you have blood diseases, cancers, autoimmune diseases, immune deficiencies, or back disease such as disk herniation (don't know why on that one).
• You will get a donor card with an identification number.  You will be able to update your contact information online, which is important when you're on the registry!

If one is asked to donate:

• There are two methods of donation, bone marrow aspiration (from iliac crest) or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) filtration.
• PBSC filtration is performed by first giving the donor a five day course of filgastrim, then filtering the stem cells out of the blood and returning the rest of the blood to the donor.
• The method of donation is up to the physician performing the transplant, over 80% of the time PBSC is chosen.
• Studies have not shown a clear benefit over one method or the other to either donor or recipient.
• If you are a preliminary match for someone, you will be contacted and asked if you are still willing to go through the process.

What are the chances of being asked to donate?

• It largely depends on your HLA type.  Most people are never asked to donate though.

For more information, go to http://www.marrow.org/