In honor of November being Marrow Awareness Month, you can join the National Marrow Registry for FREE (normally it's $60 for the DNA kit). This is an awesome opportunity to join the registry and possibly save someone's life!
Here's how to sign up:
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_Now_Sponsored/otsuka_nov08/join_now.html (http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_Now_Sponsored/otsuka_nov08/join_now.html)
There's a ton of information on the site about the registry and donation that should hopefully answer any questions you may have. If you're pretty sure you're already registered but either want to double check or update your contact information you can check out the contact section of the website:
https://www.marrow-donor.org/CONTACT/index.html (https://www.marrow-donor.org/CONTACT/index.html)
I'm going to register to donate. It seems like a worthy cause. [thumbsup]
Can you provide more info here for people that aren't willing to click a link?
What do you want to know?
Marrow donation can save lives for people with leukemia, lymphoma, and other diseases. It's very difficult/impossible to find matches for some patients so the more people registered as potential donors, the better chance they have.
To become a registered donor, you have to just give some blood so that they can type you and enter you in their database (besides the paperwork part of it).
If you ever come up as a potential match for someone, they will contact you, see if you are willing to be a potential donor. In that case they will run some more blood tests to see if you are a suitable donor.
You always have the option to say no at any point. You stay anonymous (unless you decide otherwise).
I was once called back for additional testing, but the other donor they tested was a better match for the patient.
Actually this reminds me that I should check and make sure that my contact information is up to date. :)
My step father had myocytic leukemia and received marrow from an anonymous donor. Know what you are getting into before you sign up. When they say it takes around 21 days to recover, they are not kidding. I just would hate for you to be a match, and then decide that you cannot go through with it. 30 or so holes drilled into your pelvis will not feel good.