Sunday: Bone Marrow Drive to Save Miri’s Life

A bone marrow drive will be held on Sunday in Crown Heights to help save the life of 8-year-old Miri.

A donation means life. 

A beating heart, pulsing veins, expanding lungs.

By donating, you present a desperate Miri with a second chance to live. 

It’s impossible for a patient in need of a bone marrow transplant to survive. But when a transplant is performed, patients like Miri are given a lifesaver, an opportunity to continue living. Not only is the donation a lifesaver for her, but family members and friends are reacquiring someone close to their heart. A beloved child, a sibling, a friend. 

 “When my late husband Moti contracted cancer, we were suddenly exposed to the horrors of the illness.” shares Dr. Bracha Zisser, manager of the National Bone Marrow Registry for cancer patients on behalf of Ezer Mizion. “Moti, in desperate need of a bone marrow match, was added to an ever-growing bone marrow donor list. And as we waited and waited with no donor in sight, we realized that his life along with the lives of countless patients are hovering.”

Because Dr. Zisser wanted to give patients like Miri a chance, she got straight to work. A couple of decades ago, she formed the basis for the establishment of the registry. With awareness of the database constantly rising, today it is the largest Jewish database in the world with over one million and one hundred thousand bone marrow samples in the database. Ezer Mizion saves the lives of cancer patients by finding matching donors in the world’s largest Jewish bone marrow donor registry. Thanks to the database, 4200 lives of people who underwent bone marrow transplant were saved.

And Miri, afraid and lonely, is still waiting.

Days pass, glimmers of hope are detected, dreams are raised, plummeted and shattered.

You would think that with tens of thousands of samples taken every year, finding a match for Miri should be simple. But finding a perfect match is rarer than winning the lottery! It’s one in a few thousand.

Now, the search for a perfect match is on.

People are afraid to donate. “It’s painful; it’s not for me right now,” they say.

But all you need to do is get swabbed.

Dr. Ziser explains how simple the process is. “The collection of bone marrow samples is now done in a simple way – by providing a saliva sample.

“And potential donors,” Dr Zisser continues. “This is a simple procedure! It’s not painful, does not take place in an operating room but while sitting in an armchair, and lasts about 4-6. Hours. And saves lives! Literally.”

When a request from the hospital to find a bone marrow donation is received, the patient’s data is entered into the computer software and a search for a donor with identical genetic data begins.

More data translates into more chances for Miri. Let’s feel the pain together – Klal Yisroel and a young, desperate 8-year-old girl waiting for her match.

Get swabbed.

Find out if you’re Miri’s match.

It’s rarer than winning the lottery. But you may just be that winner.