Your New Year�s Resolution
To Join the Bone Marrow Registry
Could Help Save �Eco Ed�s� Life

Sunday, January 5, 2014

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RIDGEWOOD, NJ - On November 4th, village resident Ed Schwartz was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Ed is now searching for an unrelated donor to facilitate a stem cell transplant to help cure his life-threatening disease.

The HLA Registry at Community Blood Services and Friends of �Eco Ed� urge area residents to join the Be The Match bone marrow registry at a drive this Sunday, January 5th to help Ed find his match and to offer hope to other patients who need to find their matches just like Ed.

The drive will be held at Temple Israel, 475 Grove Street in Ridgewood, between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Registration for anyone age 18-44 is free, painless and easy, requiring completion of a short medical history and a simple swab taken from the inner cheek.

�Won�t you consider making your new year�s resolution to join the registry and see if you are a match to help Ed or another patient in need of a bone marrow stem cell transplant?,� asked Patrice Foresman of Community Blood Services. �YOU can make a difference!�

�Eco Ed� Schwartz is an amazing husband, a wonderful father and a lifelong eco-warrior who is one of more than 30,000 children and adults diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers each year. Like Ed, 70 percent of those patients will not find matches within their own families and must turn to the national registry to find a donor match as their cure.

If you can�t register but wish to help in another way, you can help fund the family�s efforts by sending in a contribution to help defer the cost of adding new members to the registry. A check can be made out to the Be The Match registry to The HLA Registry, 102 Chestnut Ridge Road, Montvale, NJ 07645. Every $100 raised helps add a member to the registry. For more information, call Patrice Foresman of The HLA Registry at 201-274-5381 or email her at [email protected].

ABOUT THE HLA REGISTRY

The HLA Registry (HLA stands for human leukocyte antigens, the genetic information encoded on white blood cells) at Community Blood Services is dedicated to finding compatible unrelated donors for lifesaving bone marrow transplants. A member of the NMDP based in Montvale (NJ), it is the largest non-governmental donor center in the U.S. and has registered more than 230,000 potential donors in the NMDP�s data base.