Every year, thousands of people of all ages are in desperate need of bone marrow transplants – it may be their only chance to survive. Some patients with aplastic anemia, leukemia, lymphoma or other cancers are lucky – they have a family member who is genetically matched.

However, about 70% of people aren’t as lucky. None of their relatives are a match. Their lives depend on finding an unrelated donor, like you or me, who has a compatible tissue type.

Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) registry – as matches are most often found between people of the same ethnic group.

Increasing the diversity of the marrow donor registry is literally a matter of life and death. If more people from more ethnic backgrounds join the registry to donate marrow or stem cells, more people who need a marrow transplant will find a life-saving match. This is a specific issue for Telugu communityas there are very small numbers of Telugus and people of Indian origin in the NMDP registry. The morepeople from our background join the bone marrow donor registry, the more patients from our backgroundare likely to find a life-saving match. Members of our ethnic heritage are especially in need where weneed to step up and save people especially those who belong to our ethnicity.