4 reasons why you should attend the 327 stem cell drive
There’s a need right now that you can help with. The OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network needs more registrants, especially Chinese registrants. What is this network? It’s a network of Canadians who have registered to potentially be donors for patients who need a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, a lifesaving procedure. For this procedure, patients must be carefully matched with the correct donor so that the transplant will go smoothly. It’s a lot more complicated than a blood transfusion where things like ethnicity can greatly increase the chance of finding a proper donor. Right now, there’s a huge shortage of Chinese people in this network despite the fact that Chinese make up the 3rd largest ethnicity in Canada, only behind the English & French.
So how can you help? Attend one of the four “327″ drives happening in Vancouver and Toronto on Saturday, March 27 between 11am & 5pm. Don’t live in one of these cities or can’t make it that day? No problem, you can do it online as well here. What does registering involve? Hardly anything, just a bit of your time and a few of your cheek cells. If you attend the drive, you’ll fill out some forms and they’ll take a cotton swab of your cheeks to register your DNA. If you do it at home online, you’ll fill out the forms online, you’ll get a cheek swabbing kit a few weeks later, you swab your cheeks, and send it back to them. And that’s that, you’re registered!
So what are you waiting for? Go next Saturday or do it online! I did it a few years ago and it was very easy. And you don’t have to be Chinese (there’s just a shortage of Chinese registrants), they don’t discriminate. If that’s not enough to get you to register, I’ve provided a list of 4 reasons why you should register:
- You could potentially save a life. How often can you say you’ve taken the first steps to potentially saving somebody’s life? Unless you work in medicine, are a police officer, fireperson, or paramedic, likely not often. So here’s your chance to be as close to a superhero as possible. You could also find a genetically modified spider to bite you, but that’s a lot harder than attending this drive.
- All the cool people are doing it. I’ve done it already, one of the coolest people ever. But if that’s not enough, Patrick Chan (you know, Canada’s reigning men’s figure skating champion?) is endorsing this too. Now, don’t you want to be like Patrick Chan and I?
- You could get a ride my new car. There’s 1 location in Vancouver and 3 locations in Toronto that this drive is being held at. For those of you in the GTA and can’t get to one of the 3 locations, I’m willing to drive you there in my new car! So no excuses of “I can’t get there.” Plus who wouldn’t want to get a chauffeured by yours truly?
- Because you can. Too many times in our lives, we don’t do things, even things that benefit others, because we can’t. We don’t have the time. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the resources. Well, this is something you can do. It’ll just take a fraction of your time but the potential benefits for others are enormous. None of the other reasons really matter except this one. Do it because you can.
