{"id":527,"date":"2014-02-26T18:14:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T18:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/?p=527"},"modified":"2014-02-26T18:17:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T18:17:13","slug":"its-my-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/?p=527","title":{"rendered":"It’s my anniversary!"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, not of my wedding (though come October 1st, that’ll be ten years), but it will be my 17<\/strong><\/span>-year anniversary of being a bone marrow donor registrant through the National Marrow Donor Program<\/a> (aka., Be The Match<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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National Marrow Donor Program<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time, I was attending school at The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville<\/a> and I setup a donor drive in conjunction with the Black Students Association<\/a>. \u00a0I was a single mom to an 18-month old biracial child and pregnant with another one on the way. \u00a0The drive was a focus to encourage more minorities to become donors.<\/p>\n

It was important to me that should my children ever have a need, that there would be this option available for them. \u00a0The only way to increase awareness was to get out there and do it! \u00a0So, without hesitation, I did! \u00a0I was told we had a pretty good drive…it’s been a long time and I can’t recall the numbers exactly but I remember thinking at the time that it didn’t sound that great. \u00a0But every donor counts!<\/p>\n

According to the American Medical Association<\/a>,<\/p>\n

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) maintains a database of over 5 million potential donors that is accessed worldwide looking for the “perfect” match; each person searching for the light in a seemingly infinite tunnel. However, even the world\u2019s largest bone marrow registry can not save lives without the support of volunteers\u2026including you and me. The number of minority participants grows continually each year, with a paralleled increase in demand. Even though family members are screened for matches the majority of patients require an\u00a0unrelated<\/em>\u00a0donor. Genetically, greater compatibility can be found within ethnic groups, thereby enhancing the need from minorities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, are you ready to commit? \u00a0Ready to join and step up if needed? \u00a0(Click the image below!)<\/p>\n

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Join the National Bone Marrow Donor Program NOW!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you’re unable to become a bone marrow donor, then how about considering a monetary donation<\/a>? \u00a0Learn more about other ways to donate HERE<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Follow Be The Match on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, Pinterest<\/a> or Flickr<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, not of my wedding (though come October 1st, that’ll be ten years), but it will be my 17-year anniversary of being<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,50],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-be-the-match","tag-bone-marrow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}