Fairbanks
Daily News Miner
Article
Published: Saturday, January 21, 2006
It's in our blood
The
Blood Bank of Alaska thanked us this week for coverage of the Dec. 30 bone
marrow drive coordinated by the bank and GCI in light of Iditarod champion
Susan Butcher's ongoing fight with leukemia.
But the thanks really goes to readers
who picked up on what is one of the best things media entities are privileged
to do: to get the word out when someone or some people are in need.
Jack Williams, chief executive officer
of the blood bank, said the event saw the largest turnout for a bone marrow
drive in the 43-year history of the Blood Bank of Alaska. It resulted in 1,147
new donors for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, providing possible
donors for not only Susan Butcher, but for any who are desperately seeking a
match.
In addition to the sample tubes drawn
for the marrow drive, the bank collected 263 pints of whole blood for immediate
use, he said.
The turnout in Fairbanks, naturally, was
the largest of any location across the state.
More than 500 people joined in the effort
here, and a Fairbanks family donated $6,000 to the cause, said Gregg Schomaker,
director of donor collections for the blood bank.
"We always have successful drives
in Fairbanks," Schomaker said from his Anchorage office. "People
there seem to have a strong feeling of community. They know what it means to
come out for people in need."
Maybe it's just in our blood to give.
Of course the need for donors, and cash
donations, didn't end with the Dec. 30 drive. The odds of finding bone marrow
matches outside one's own family are slim, and they become even more slim
outside their own race.
The need is high enough that government
grants, secured to boost the level of minority samples available in the
national registry, cover the cost of processing donations from members of
minority groups. It costs the bank $65 apiece to process Caucasian donations,
Schomaker said.
Even with the $10,000 sponsorship from
GCI and $6,000 donated by a local family, the blood bank spent another $19,000
processing samples from Dec. 30, Schomaker said.
The continuing need becomes clearer
considering that Susan Butcher, a Caucasian, has a 1 in 20,000 to 50,000 chance
of finding a donor match among the national registry of 5.5 million potential
donors, 71 percent of whom are Caucasian.
The act of donating bone marrow is no
small thing and, clearly, is a rare opportunity to help someone in dire need.
Thanks are most certainly due those who came out Dec. 30 and to many more
Fairbanksans who will undoubtedly continue to contribute to this cause in the
future.
To donate to the blood bank or the bone marrow registry learn more at www.bloodbankofalaska.org or contact the blood bank at 376-1195.