Well I just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing my best to start blogging on a regular basis again. In fact I have several cool event posts almost ready to go. My apologies for kind of falling off the face of the blogosphere the past few weeks. While I have been attending both wedding events and showcases, as The Flirty Guide, my focus has been split the past 7 weeks as I've undertaken a new project...
In case you didn't know I've been working harder then usual because my cousin Tami, who is like a sister to me, was diagnosed with a bone marrow disease/blood cancer very similar to Leukemia called Myelodysplasia.
She is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant. I looked into it and immediately found out that her odds of ever finding a match, because she is Asian and there are precious few Asians in the national registry, are not good at all. I have dedicated the past 2 months to building her a website, blog, forum and creating and launching publicity to raise awareness about why I hope that everyone who is eligible to register, will at least consider joining the National Marrow Donor Program.Trust me. You do not want to wait to register until someone you care about is the person in need. Most people don't realize that if you aren't already in the registry it can take approximately 5 months to determine if you are a marrow match for a sick patient. If you are in the registry that time can be cut down to approximately 3 months instead. Now imagine waiting for 2 months while someone you care about is told that they need a donor to survive and they need one quickly while they are still healthy enough to undergo the transplant procedure.
How to join? I am conducting a nationwide mail-in test kit donor registration campaign as well as working with many amazing volunteers, donor programs and blood centers to help facilitate local live drive campaigns in California, Washington, Hawaii and now Massachusetts.I have made some incredible friends along the way and have seen the other side of human nature, not the dark terrible side you see on the news each day, but the wonderful side where strangers reach out to you and people do anything and everything they can think of to help someone they barely or don't even know.
CLICK HERE to join the Helping Tami.org Facebook Group for updates and new even listings.A lot of my blogging the past two months has taken place on the Helping Tami website blog. Please take a peek at it when you have the time. If you want to get involved, a little or a lot, there are many things you can do to help me help my cousin and the 6000 other Americans in need of a life saving marrow transplant.
• Join the marrow registry
• Spread the word
- Email the link to Helping Tami.org to everyone you know
- Add a Helping Tami web badge to your website or blog
- Blog it
- Post her link on Facebook, Twitter & Myspace
- Tell everyone you know when you see them Face to Face
- If you work in an office and there's a community bulletin board print out a flyer to post there
• Host a live drive
• Volunteer at a live drive
• If you know anyone famous who would be willing to do a 10 second cameo in the PSA please let me know
2 Click Here to Comment:
She is lucky to have such a great cousin. Give yourself a pat on the back for being such a caring and hardworking friend. Another pat for spreading the word. :)
I was telling my dad what I was doing that day with you and the drive and we both realized our family friend has pre-lukemia as well. She's Chinese and on the transplant list right now.
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