Cranbury Boy Scout Needs Bone Marrow Transplant!
HLA Bone Marrow Registry Drive Scheduled June 21 June 21, 2014
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CRANBURY, NJ - Twelve-year-old Will Ellsworth of Cranbury, son of Dina and Ken Ellsworth, desperately needs to find a bone marrow match to cure his aplastic anemia.
In the hope of finding Will a lifesaving match and helping other patients who need marrow transplants, a �Friends of Will� bone marrow registration drive will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 21st at Cranbury Methodist Church, 21 North Main Street. The drive is being sponsored by the Cranbury Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 68.
Will, who has two sisters and a brother, loves to play lacrosse and participate in his Boy Scout troop, Troop #52 activities.
Aplastic anemia is a rare bone marrow disease reducing Will�s capacity to produce red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets, making it impossible for Will�s body to fight infection. Will has received many blood and platelet transfusions, along with immunosuppressive therapy. A bone marrow transplant, which would replace Will�s old marrow and start producing healthy blood, would give him a 90 percent chance of beating the disease.
The public is urged to stop by June 21 and spend about 10 to 20 minutes registering to join the National Marrow Donor Program�s Be The Match 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 Will and patients like Will who need bone marrow transplants until your 61st birthday.
If you are 45-60 years of age you can register online at Will�s virtual drive June 7 through July 31. You can click here to fill out your registration form online; enter Will�s promo code, WILLE2014, when asked. Once you receive your cheek swab kit in the mail, swab your cheek and send it back to Be The Match to be registered.
Every day thousands of adults and children like Will are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia and other serious diseases that require stem cell transplants as a cure. Approximately 70 percent of those patients will not find matches within their own families and must turn to the Be The Match registry to find a donor. You can learn more at www.bethematch.org.
If you cannot register at the drives 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, 201 Chestnut Ridge Road, Montvale, NJ 07645. A donation box will be available at the June 21 drive as well.
Anyone interested in more information about registering or in learning more about bone marrow stem cell donations can click here or call Kathy Young at The HLA Registry, 201-705-1615, or visit www.communitybloodservices.com.
ABOUT THE HLA REGISTRY
The HLA Registry at Community Blood Services (HLA stands for human leukocyte antigens, the genetic information encoded on white blood cells) 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. 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.
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