My Non-Profit of Choice

What comes to mind when you hear the words, “Be The Match”? For me, its the thought of helping save someone’s life who might not have had a chance without me or the other 35 million people who have taken the time to sign up to become a possible bone marrow donor.

“Be the Match” was founded in 1986, but until recent years I had never heard of this organization. I go to school at The University of Houston and in one of my classes we had a group of volunteers come to present to us everything that “Be the Match” stood for and what it meant to become a donor. After thirty minutes of heart tugging stories and information, there was no doubt I was going to become a donor in hopes that I could possibly be the one person who was lucky enough to match and let another human live that much longer.

While its only a few simple steps to join, it is still important to point out that if you do match with a patient the odds of them matching to someone again are slim and the procedure would need to be done. At first that scared me to think about, but after watching the many stories of families that have gone through transplants, and those who are still waiting, it made me stop and think… if all i have to do is give peripheral blood stem cells, give bone marrow, or at the most extensive give cord blood in comparison to what blood cancer patients must endure, then I could for sure endure a couple days of healing pain than them have to go the rest of their life fighting to survive.

In reality most won’t ever get a call, but by signing up and joining into their database you make the chances of a match that much more and allow for that much more hope to come over those who are waiting for a transplant.

In 2020, “Be the Match” hit a record amount of transplants at 100,000! That amazes me and gives me hope that since more and more people are participating and joining, more matches are able to occur. If you’re interested in finding out more information on the patients, becoming a donor and also more into the background of “Be the Match,” I strongly recommend watching the videos, power points, and research finds they provide because they give tons of information and interviews of donors and families who have gone through it.

I love being able to support “Be the Match,” and have been on the list now for two years without a call but without a doubt I would do it in a heart beat. Its an interesting topic, I know… but if I’m going to be real here I want you to know who I support and why it matters to me!

Thanks for taking the time to read and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out! This organization is so transparent with everything and I love that I can be apart of it!

Here is the link to their main page.

XO Madison!