Ten Reasons to Join the National Bone Marrow Registry

I shot the videos you see below for an August 20, 2016 bone marrow matching drive in Camden, ME — a drive motivated by the multiple myeloma cancer suffered by my wife, Tracy Jalbuena. But almost all of these reasons apply beyond Tracy to one of the millions more who suffer from blood cancer, in places far beyond one small town in Maine.

You don’t need to wait for a bone marrow donor drive to join the National Bone Marrow Registry and see if you’re a match for someone who needs a life-saving transplant.  Click here to visit the Be the Match website and sign up for the registry RIGHT NOW — you’ll be sent a free test kit for a simple, painless cheek swab in the mail.

Reason #1: It’s Painless

Reason #2: It’s Quick

Reason #3: It’s Free

Reason #4: The Only Hope for Multiple Myeloma Sufferers

Reason #5: Tracy Jalbuena is Awesome

Reason #6: Do it for the Kids

Reason #7: Come to Help One Person, Help 1 Million + On the Side

Reason #8: Do it for the One You Love

Reasons #9 and #10: Build Community & Feel Great

Oregon State University issues Be The Match Campus Challenge Against Blood Cancer

Undergraduates at Oregon State University held a donor drive on their campus in Corvallis last month:

More than 120 students joined the National Bone Marrow Registry with the easy, quick, painless, no-cost act of sitting down at a table on the quad and getting their cheeks swabbed.

That simple act may have amazing reverberations — any time in the next 20 years that someone gets sick with blood cancer, an OSU student will be checked to see if their blood markers match.  If and when these students’ swabs match up, they can give the gift of life to someone in desperate need.

If you watch the video above, you’ll notice that OSU students are challenging other campuses across the nation to do better, to top OSU in its donor count. Has your school organized a bone marrow donor drive yet?  If not, check out the Be The Match on Campus website, which has all the links and resources you need to set up a donor drive on campus.  You can do it — and it works!  Check out these amazing stats.  Through the new Be The Match on Campus program, college students have:

• raised $53,063 to support the National Bone Marrow Registry
• added 4,111 new people to the registry as potential donors
• generated 86 actual bone marrow donations already!

Add your energy to this wave of generosity.  Give of yourself.  Help others learn about the gift of a bone marrow match for people suffering from blood cancers.  Grab a friend, head online, and get a Be The Match on Campus chapter started at your college or university today.

#OregonState #BeTheMatch

Biographical Video from Tracy Jalbuena and her Family — Cure Her Cancer, Be the Match!

Watch this short biographical video to learn a little more about emergency room doctor and multiple myeloma patient Tracy Jalbuena:

Thank you so much to Numeriano Jalbuena, Kathy Jalbuena and Amy Jalbuena — Tracy’s father, mother and sister — for telling their family stories as part of this video. Tracy is a strong part of so many people’s lives. She’s been there for others — now it’s time for us to come together for her.

If you are between the ages of 18 and 44, the prime age for healthy donors, please consider visiting this page to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. It’s easy, it’s simple, it’s free — and you could save Tracy’s life.

If you aren’t in the age range for bone marrow stem cell donors, would you consider spreading the word? Send an e-mail to friends. Post a link on Facebook. Let the young people in your life know that they can make a difference — and that even if they aren’t a match for Tracy, they may be a match for someone else in need. Thanks.

What Cures Multiple Myeloma… Our Kids’ Many Answers… and the Truth

Our family is many things, silly included.  When my beautiful wife Tracy Jalbuena fell ill with the blood cancer Multiple Myeloma, we started putting together videos to call for help. When we asked our son and daughter on camera what could cure Multiple Myeloma, we weren’t surprised to hear something other than the literal truth.

In this video, our kids share their ideas for what might cure multiple myeloma:

The uncomfortable truth we leaven with our fun: the only option with a chance for a cure is an allogeneic transplant of bone marrow stem cells from a donor — a donor who must be a near-perfect match for Tracy.  Most people find a match in the National Bone Marrow Registry, but because of Tracy’s multiethnic heritage her bone marrow type is rare.  There is currently no match available for Tracy.

We’re out of options… unless you or someone you know steps up to the plate, joins the Bone Marrow registry and turns out to be the one — Tracy’s match.

Would you like to be a lifesaver?  To give it a shot, all you have to do is head over to a website called bethematch.org and sign up to be tested for the National Bone Marrow Registry.  It’s easy, it’s painless, and for people aged 18-44 (who statistically have the healthiest marrow) it’s absolutely free.  You can even do it by mail.

Here’s the best part — even if you don’t turn out to be the match for Tracy, you could end up being the match for someone else.  There are thousands of people who need a match to save their lives.  You could do so much good with so little trouble to yourself.  Are you in?  Will you do it?

Even if you can’t or won’t send a sample in, please share this video with your friends, your family, heck even your archnemesis if you think it would be helpful.  And if you can manage just a few moments — please, Be The Match.  Thank you.