Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday.
I'm writing to ask you to take a few minutes this holiday to help save the life of an incredibly warm and dear friend of mine, Seun Adebiyi. After graduating from Yale law school this past May, Seun was diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma. He quit his job and is now training to become the first Nigerian delegate to the Winter Olympics, where he hopes to compete in the skeleton event--Honestly, he's absolutely incredible.
We on DailyKos have talked a lot in the past year about improving the American health care system. Beyond large systemic reforms, we also need individuals--each of us--to give generously when we can and help those around us.
Seun's best chance of survival--like many with leukemia and lymphoma--is to find a bone marrow donor match. Unfortunately far too few people are registered as donors. Finding a match is especially difficult for minorities. African Americans make up only 8% of the donor registry, and only 17% of African American patients receive life-saving transplants. Please visit DKMS Americas Today and receive a free cheek swab kit in the mail to become a bone marrow donor.
The process of becoming a bone marrow donor is simple:
- Visit DKMS Americas to Sign Up.
- You'll receive a free cheek swab kit in the mail and send it back.
- If you are ever found to be a match for a patient, you will be contacted and asked to donate bone marrow.
Donating involves one of two procedures:
- A bone marrow donation in which marrow is taken out of the pelvic bone during a 1-2 hour procedure under local or general anesthesia (Learn more here)
- or a procedure in which peripheral blood stem cells are collected from a vein in the arm (Learn more here).
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Seun's chances of finding a match are slim, but he's dedicated himself to registering 10,000 new bone marrow donors. Please help him today by visiting DKMS Americas.
You can learn more about Seun here.
Here's a short video Seun made with DKMS, the largest worldwide blood marrow donor center:
And here is a longer, more personal video on Seun's family and training for the Olympics:
More to Live For - Preview from Noah Hutton on Vimeo.
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Thank you so much for reading. God bless you and your family. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and have a wonderful New Year.
-Brett