Nutley Dad Needs Bone Marrow Transplant!
HLA Bone Marrow Registry Drive Scheduled
to Help Find His Match

June 1, 2014

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RUTHERFORD, NJ � A bone marrow drive is being held on Sunday, June 1 to help find a bone marrow stem cell match for a 43-year-old father of two who has been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and needs a transplant to cure his disease.

The drive for Eddie Vanderhoof is being held by Eddie�s family with The HLA Registry, a division of Community Blood Services, on Sunday, June 1 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Boiling Spring Masonic Lodge, 169 Park Avenue.

Eddie grew up in Rutherford before moving to Nutley seven years ago. He was diagnosed with AML in March, a blood cancer that prevents his body from properly producing red blood cells, platelets or white blood cells. A transplant would replace Eddie�s old marrow and start producing healthy blood. Eddie�s best hope is to find a marrow match through the National Marrow Donor Program�s Be The Match registry.

Eddie graduated from Seton Hall University and works as a senior vice president in commercial banking for a large financial institution. In his spare time he likes to play guitar and lives for spending time with his wife, Nichole, and his daughters Olivia, 4 and Madison, 2.

His wife Nichole says Eddie�s hope is �to be able to walk his daughters down the aisle someday and dance at his grandchildren�s weddings. And he is looking forward to going to see his favorite football team, the Steelers, play in Pittsburgh.�

The public is urged to stop by the June 1 drive and spend 10 minutes registering to join the national registry by getting a simple cheek swab and filling out a short health form. To register you must be 18-44 years of age, willing to donate for any patient in the world, and meet the health guidelines. Once on the registry, you are available for Eddie and patients like Eddie who need bone marrow transplants. You will remain on the registry until you are age 61.

Every day, thousands of adults and children like Eddie are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia and other serious diseases that require stem cell transplants as a cure. Like Eddie, 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. You can learn more at www.bethematch.

You can also click here to register online at a virtual drive for Eddie at bethematch.org. Use promo code EDDIEV2014. If you cannot register As a marrow donor 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. Every $100 raised helps add a member to the registry. A check can be made out to the Be The Match Foundation and mailed to The HLA Registry, 102 Chestnut Ridge Road, Montvale, NJ 07645.

Community Blood Services has been serving the community for more than 60 years. In addition to housing The HLA Registry, it houses the public New Jersey Cord Blood Bank and provides blood and blood products to patients in more than 18 hospitals in New Jersey and New York State.

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 a member of the National Marrow Donor Program�s (NMDP) Be The Match Registry. The registry 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.