Event looks for bone marrow donors

A match-making event today (Monday) in Boone won’t find you the love of your life, but it might help you save someone’s life. The Iowa Marrow Donor Program is asking people to have their blood tested and typed to go on a registry of potential bone marrow donors. Nancy Woods is helping coordinate the event at the Boone campus of the Des Moines Area Community College. She says they’re looking for people ages 18 to 60 and in general good health who’re willing to commit “a selfless act” in donating some of their blood to be tissue typed. Woods says once you’ve been typed, your marrow information will go into the program’s national registry.She says your marrow might match that of a person who needs treatment and you could be a hero and save their life. Donating your marrow to a stranger might not be as easy as donating it to a relative — but Woods says in this case you may also need the help of a stranger some day. She says she was surprised to learn that 70-percent of marrow donors come from outside the patient’s own family. She says more than 30,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with a disease each year that can be treated with a bone marrow transplant. She says it’s such and important program that she hopes they can get some people enrolled and she says while you may never be called — you just might and save someone’s life. The marrow registration drive begins at 10 a.m. at the student center on the DMACC campus, and runs until seven p.m. Woods says are also accepting donations to help fund the registration. For more information about the donor drive, call the Iowa Marrow Donor Program toll free at 800-944-8220.