This story will share my bone marrow donor experience through BMDP.
If you browse through the obituaries, you will quickly realised that people who have passed on, are not necessary Old folks. When we are young and healthy, we tend not to think about illness, suffering or death.
Unfortunately, Cancer and diseases do not discriminate between young and old, the rich or poor. As a parent, we do not wish to see any child sick.
You might have spotted us on Straits Time and 联合早报 Wednesday (27Feb2013). Daddy was helping BMDP (Bone Marrow Donor Programme) to spread awareness about Bone Marrow transplant (骨髓移植).
Ten years ago (before SengkangBabies arrive), Daddy faced a lot of questions and uncertainties. With Mummy’s support, and a wish to do good (做好人), Daddy went ahead to donate his Bone Marrow.
** What Daddy can do today is to share his experience, spread more awareness and encourage more to be donors or volunteers.
The Questions
BMDP’s FAQ page will answer some of our doubts or even clear some myths.
1. What is Bone Marrow?
2. Why do we need to talk about Bone Marrow Transplant?
3. Is it safe to donate your Bone Marrow? Any side effects?
4. How is Bone Marrow extracted ?
5. How long does it take to recover?
More processes can be found at BMDP website. For example :
– what happens after you register?
– how is a Donor selected and how are the tissues matched ?
– how does Transplant requests reach BMDP?
Some traditional folks believe vitality might diminished after Bone marrow extraction.
Daddy went on to have four healthy kids after his donation 🙂
Video : BMDP is giving Hope, creating Miracles
The Numbers
Every day – 6 patients are diagnosed with blood-related diseases
Every Month – 30 requests to find matching Donors
Every Year – 50 Bone Marrow related operations in Singapore
Odds of being the chosen donor – 1 in 20,000
Within the family – 1 in 4
With a larger donor base, the probability of finding a match is higher.
BMDP is targeting 20,000 more donors over next three years.
It costs $150 to tissue-match each new donor.
How much do we need to register 20,000 new donors !
Save life, give Hope, giving back to society, do Good.
Whatever the reasons, all of us have the capacity to HELP.
How can we Help?
Be a Donor, or help as a volunteer during recruitment drives.
Your monetary donations will help to fund new donor’s tissue matching expenses.
BMDP’s contacts :
Email – admin@bmdp.org
Web – http://www.bmdp.org
Fanpage – http://www.facebook.com/bmdp.sg?fref=ts
Phone – 6327 1344
With Jane Prior, BMDP’s president. To quote Jane “BMDP is in the business of Miracles”.
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Through his actions, Daddy hopes to inspire the kids to do Good and contribute back to society too. Help SengkangBabies spread Bone marrow transplant (骨髓移植) awareness. Bring more HOPE to someone today.
a) You can read about Daddy’s 2002 experience here.
b) For those interested, do a image.google.com (search Bone Marrow) and you will have an idea of how Bone Marrow can be extracted. The pictures might make some uncomfortable, and please ignore the soup-tulong images :p
c) Did you know that a newborn’s umbilical cord contains rich Stem cells? If you are not banking the baby’s stem cells with a private institution, do consider
Singapore Cord Blood Bank (Public Cord Blood bank).