KTUU 2 Anchorage

Friday, December 30, 2005 - by Sean Doogan 

Anchorage, Alaska - Blood Bank of Alaska managers say today’s bone marrow registration drive was a success. More than 800 Alaskans added their names to the National Marrow Donor Program registry.

The event, spurred by Alaska mushing legend Susan Butcher’s battle with leukemia, also increased blood donations, according to Blood Bank employees. The bone marrow donor drive is also in honor of Anchorage resident Michael Donaldson. Donaldson suffers from lymphoma and, like Butcher, is waiting for a bone marrow match.

Speaking by phone from her Seattle hospital yesterday, Butcher said that she hopes the drive will add more Alaska Natives to the bone marrow database. Natives are the least represented ethnic group on the list, a fact that Butcher says means some Alaska leukemia patients have little hope of finding a life-saving match.

But today, at least, Alaskans poured in to blood banks across the state, inspired to sign up by Butcher’s plight.