Finding a match
To find a match, doctors compare the genetic characteristics of stem cells from their patients to potential donors. Family members are usually the first to be tested as donors for a patient, but about 70 percent of patients who need a transplant don’t have a matching donor in their family. They have to rely on an unrelated donor, and finding one is no easy task.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), established in 1986 by a group of families and physicians, began efforts to help more patients find matches and receive transplants by creating a national donor registry. In 2009, they started the Be the Match® campaign to increase awareness and grow the Be the Match® Registry. They even elicited the help of celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal to spread the word.

There’s a constant need for more people to join the registry. Beyond family members, patients are more likely to match someone from their own race or ethnicity. So adding more donors to the registry—especially those from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds—increases the likelihood that more patients will find the donor they need.

Joining the registry
Joining the Be the Match® Registry means you’re putting your name into a pool of potential bone marrow donors. Because matches are based on genetics, you’re asked to provide a painless swab of your cheek cells when you register. NMDP uses your sample to determine your tissue type and those results are used to match you to patients. If you join in person, a NMDP representative shows you how to use the swab kit. If you join online, you’ll receive your kit in the mail along with detailed instructions for how to take your own sample.

Once added, you’re on the registry until you turn 61, unless you ask to be removed before that. If you’re identified as a match for a patient, a representative from NMDP will contact you to walk through the steps for donating.

Donating
There are two ways to donate—peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) and bone marrow. The patient’s doctor uses the registry to find a matching donor and then chooses which type of donation will be best for his or her patient.

A PBSC donation is a nonsurgical procedure at a blood center or outpatient hospital unit and is similar to giving blood. You’re given daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days leading up to your donation. The drug increases the number of blood-forming cells in your bloodstream. During the donation, your blood is removed through a needle in one arm, passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells, and the remaining blood is returned to you through a needle in your other arm. Your blood-forming cells return to their normal levels within four to six weeks.

A marrow donation is an outpatient surgical procedure at a hospital. You receive general anesthesia and then doctors use a needle to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of your pelvic bone. Your marrow completely replaces itself within four to six weeks.

Regardless of how you donate, you’ll likely experience soreness and muscle aches, similar to what you’d feel after a tough work out. For PBSC donors, the generalized soreness is a side effect of the filgrastim; for marrow donors, it’s usually in their lower back where the marrow was taken.