South East Asian bone marrow drive

Hello Friends,

I am posting this appeal from my good friend Hiral, for a child who needs a matching bone marrow donor. Please check the bone marrow drives that have been organized in your area.

Perhaps it is you who is destined to save a life. http://www.savenirali.com

This link will help you locate all the drives that are going in the country. http://www.aadp.org

Please pass this to anyone who might help.

Thank You,
Rajesh


Dear Friends,

We request your help.
Nirali Naik of Chicago, IL - a sweet and wonderful 18 month girl - and the daughter of dear friends of ours is suffering from Leukemia. Please see
http://www.savenirali.com
All of us well wishers of Nirali are trying to find a matching bone marrow donor for her. We are doing this by organizing numerous bone marrow drives around the country. SAMAR (South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters) is helping us do this.
More info on SAMAR -
http://www.samarinfo.org
We urge you to please come to the drives that are located near you - (they are listed in Nirali's website) and register for bone marrow donation to see if you can save her life. Because Nirali's race is Indian, the likelihood of finding a matching donor is highest among Indians. As you can see from the SAMAR home page, there are many patients of Indian origin who are waiting for a Bone marrow donor - this is a chance for us to potentially help out many others as well.

At a bone marrow drive, potential donors are asked to fill in aform and the test for marrow match is very simple - most likely an oral swab (or a blood sample). It is absolutely FREE for minority races. The samples are then tested for a particular series of Antigens (called Human Leukocyte Antigens) and the information is stored in a national database maintained by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). If the donors are potential matches with patients (including Nirali), the NMDP will contact them directly. Bone marrow donation has no long term side effect at all.

Please forward this email to Individuals/Organisations of Indian race who might be interested in helping.
Feel free to contact us - Hiral & Anurag (hirald@hotmail.com) or SAMAR directly for any questions.

If there is no drive located in your area and you would like to help in arranging one, SAMAR will provide all the resources free of cost and this
would be a huge help.
Thank you very much for your help in our efforts to save Nirali.

Sincerely,
Hiral Desai


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