APPEAL-Bone Marrow/Stem Cells donor needed ASAP

Dear Family and Friends,

Recently our father, Ravi Luckoor, was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). We have been tracking this situation since last May 2011. At first we noticed his platelets were low, and as we tracked this we saw that his platelets kept falling. After a few Bone marrow biopsies it was finally confirmed that he has MDS. With a blood disorder such as this, the bone marrow cannot differentiate properly into White Blood Cells (WBC), Red Blood Cells (RBC), and Platelets. Basically, bones in our body make blood. The cell that divides into these different cells start to accumulate within the bone marrow and evetually will stop making these cells. As of now, there is only ONE curative treatment, which is a Stem Cell Transplant.

Currently, there are no available matches in the National Bone Marrow Registry for a Stem Cell transplant to take place. This is not a surprise because there are very few people of South Asian decent who are registered with any bone marrow registry banks. Therefore, our family is making every effort to run bone marrow drives across the nation. But we would really appreciate if you all could register with a Bone Marrow Registry bank.

It is a very simple process to register with a Bone Marrow bank.
1. First, you will have to go to one of the following sites, depending on where you are located:

AMERICA - http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx

INDIA - http://register.datriworld.org/Aspx1/NewDonorKit.aspx

2. You must register with the Bone Marrow bank.

3. They will send you a Cheek Swab kit which contains four cotton swabs which you will need to swab your inner cheek.

4. Place the Cotton swabs after you have swabbed your inner cheeks and place in the pre-paid evelope back to the Bone Marrow Registry.

5. If you are a match, you will be notified! :)


This Process takes Several Weeks so please act on this ASAP as we are pressed for time. Even if you are not a match for our dad, you can still potentially save someone else's life!
(Currently 74% of the Bone Marrow Registry are Caucasians and ONLY 7% are South Asian!!!)


If you are a Match...
The process to donate Stem Cells is very simple.
Your blood is removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood is returned to you through the other arm. It just like donating blood, but you will not loose any blood as this is passed back into you after taking the Stem Cells (Blood forming cells) out.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us (matchraviluckoor@gmail.com), our family truly does appreciate all the help and support.

Thank you,
Pavan and Arun Luckoor