ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 16, 1996 TAG: 9612160055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
THE ODDS of a person needing a bone marrow transplant finding a a match can be as high as 1million-to-1, because of the shortage of registered prospective donors.
It takes only two test tubes of blood for a person to join the National Registry of Bone Marrow Donors, but it costs $47 to get the blood typed. That fee is collected from the donor. Tuesday, the fee will be discounted to $24.50 in the hope that more people will sign up.
Because the national registry has so few people on it, the odds of a person needing a bone marrow transplant finding a match can be as high as 1million-to-1, said Steve Lovelace, coordinator for the The Marrow Center of the Virginias.
The level of match has to be closer than that for heart or liver transplants, he said.
The Marrow Center, which has its headquarters in Roanoke, will have staff available Tuesday to draw blood from potential donors from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the Red Cross blood "Donorama" at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The discounted typing fee was made possible through a grant from the Friends of Emily Naff Foundation. The foundation was started in 1994 to help pay for Naff's bone marrow transplant. Naff, a network specialist with the U.S. Postal Service in Roanoke, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991. Her disease was in remission until 1994, when an inoperable tumor was found on her lung.
She died in 1995.
Persons who cannot afford the discounted fee but want to register as a donor should attend the donor drive because funding might be available to pay their typing fees, Lovelace said.
For more information, call Lovelace at 985-3512.
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