Marrow Donor Program
Don’t Wait Another Day – Join the National Marrow Donor Program (Be The Match Registry) through LifeStream and Be the Lifesaving Difference!
You can be the one person who will save someone’s life. All you have to do is join the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) registry and give hope to patients everywhere.
LifeStream Aligns with NMDP
LifeStream is the only blood center in San Bernardino and Riverside counties partnering with the NMDP, also known as the Be The Match Registry. Registering is as simple as a swab of your cheek.
Since becoming an NMDP center in 1988, LifeStream has added over 28,000 donors to the registry – more than 1,000 donors every year. These potential donors are right here in the Inland Empire and the Coachella Valley. Since 1988, LifeStream has facilitated more than 160 marrow donations for patients who do not have matching donors in their families.
About the Be The Match Registry
Every year, more than 10,000 Americans get life-threatening diseases that can only be cured with a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. 70% of these patients do not have a family member who is a suitable donor, and a donation from a volunteer marrow donor is their only hope fur survival. When you join the Be The Match Registry, you become part of every patient's search for a donor.
Because tissue types are inherited, patients are most likely to match someone of their own race or ethnicity. People of every background are needed. Registry members from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are especially needed, so every patient has a second chance at life.
A marrow transplant can be a life-saving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma and many other diseases. First, patients undergo chemotherapy and/or radiation to destroy their diseased marrow. Then a donor's healthy blood-forming cells (marrow) are given directly into the patient's bloodstream, where they can begin to grow and function normally.
In order for a patient's body to accept these healthy cells, the donor's tissue type needs to match the patient's type as closely as possible. Doctors search the Be The Match Registry to find a suitable donor. The more people who commit to becoming a donor, the greater the likelihood that a doctor will find a match for a severely ill patient who needs a marrow transplant.
How The Procedure Works
There are two types of procedures to collect marrow and the patient's doctor will choose what is best for the patient.
Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) are collected through a process that removes blood from your arm, separates it and returns it to your body through your other arm. To prepare for your donation, you'll receive injections of the drug filgrastim, which increases the blood-forming cells in your blood stream. The outpatient procedure occurs at a local hospital.
Marrow collection is a surgical out-patient procedure that takes place in a hospital while you're under anesthesia. Doctors use a needle to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of your pelvic bone.
How Can You Save Someone’s Life?
You can register with the Be The Match Registry at any of our donor centers or blood drives. You can also register online at www.bethematch.org. Enter Promo Code - 92408 located on the Account Setup page.
