30 days of Giving and Thanks - Giving Blood and Marrow

November is rolling right along, isn't it? I've been trying to do extra deeds of giving and thanks, though we typically do this year-round.  I've been able to do my normal activities and add a little here and there. We often bring meals, food and other items to friends.

The boys will be featured in a Winter Days of Giving commercial that airs in our local area all December long.  We shot the commercial last month-- we hope it will encourage others to donate blood.  This time of year is when they REALLY need blood donors. I'm continuing with the challenge, but won't write about all of the extra things I've done. Somethings are better left unsaid, right?

I'm hoping that others will give blood this Christmas Season, this is what I'd like to write about right now.  Blood and bone marrow donors save lives. Having two boys with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome, a bone marrow failure syndrome,  we realize the need for blood and blood products. We have many friends whose lives were saved by generous blood donors.  Sean and Joseph received IgG (a blood product made from blood plasma) for over 9 years.  Joseph has been off of IgG for a few months and we are hoping he will continue to do well lke his brother, Sean, who has been off of IgG for 2 years.

Joseph almost went to transplant back in 2006-early 2007. The doctors felt it was a real possibility-- so much so that they did a preliminary search of the bone marrow donor  and cord blood registries registries (6.5 million registered donors) in preparation. We found out that Joseph doesn't have a match.  Our family was retyped (HLA typing was also done back in 2000 when they felt the boys wold be going to transplant) -- it confirmed that Matthew is a perfect 10/10 match for Sean and not a match for Joseph. 

We lost a  SDS friend last year because he developed leukemia and did not have a match. He died waiting to receive a bone marrow transplant. There are many people who are waiting for life saving bone marrow.   If you are interested in how to become a donor, please visit www.marrow.org