off topic bone marrow fwd

[Heather Rose Jones]

On Tue, 5 Mar 1996, Carol or Jeremy Close wrote:

> I checked before spamming. this is genuine.
> Carol

> >>>descendants). Finding out whether or not one is an appropriate donor
> >>>requires only a blood test. All expenses for the donor will of course be
> >>>paid. If you are or know anyone who is of like origin, please email me

This is slightly misleading. Yes, if you are found to be a compatible 
donor, your expenses for the _donation_ itself are normally covered by 
the recipient's end. However there are expenses related to the initial 
blood test and registration. Those expenses run around a couple hundred 
dollars, to the best of my recollection. And those initial expenses are 
_not_ normally covered by whatever funding source a particular potential 
recipient has access to. Even when the pool is narrowed down to a similar 
ethnic make-up, you may find a match only in one in many thousand. There 
are few guarantees. Very often you can find a recruitment program that 
will cover the initial expense -- especially if you are likely 
to have a tissue type that is rare in the current registry (which is 
rather heavily caucasian). In my case, my employer covered the expenses 
when I signed up and had the initial test. (Since I was working for a 
pharmaceutical company that was, among other things, working on 
bone-marrow transplant techniques, it was good PR for them.) I would 
certainly encourage anyone in good health to look into joining the 
bone-marrow registry -- where else can you donate an organ and still keep 
it for yourself? -- but be aware that the process isn't necessarily free.

Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn