Register as a bone marrow donor; YOU can save a life

We mourn the loss of Teddy Kennedy and celebrate his achievements in speaking up for those in need.

You don't have to be a Senator to make a difference.
You yourself can make a difference.
You can save a life.
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There's more news from Orlando, and it's not good.

I wrote previously about the at-that-point undiagnosed illness of Orlando's wife Murre, and urged you all to stop by his blog In Scarlet Ink and leave your support while appreciating his talent and intelligence. Unfortunately, when the diagnosis finally came through, it was a rare and aggressive cancer, as Orlando recounts in his latest post.

Treatment requires a blood marrow donor, or a donation of umbilical cord blood. Of course, the trick is that a match needs to be found. Here, I'll let Orlando speak for himself:

We appreciate your thoughts and prayers, and we are encouraging folks to register to be a bone marrow donor or--any pregnant readers?--an umbilical cord blood donor. Registering for bone marrow is as easy as signing up for Netflix, and actually feels oddly similar. Please understand that your odds of helping Murre by registering are millions to one....this is not like donating blood, the genetic match has to be very very close. But as we create a larger and larger library of options, these types of cancers become much easier to cure. These are very simple acts that routinely saves lives all over the place.

I have 2 friends whose lives were recently saved by bone marrow transplants. The next person I hear of may be... you. You never know. From one minute to the next, we discover that our life has changed, and someone from hundreds of miles away could be the one responsible for driving cancer out of our lives.

Yes, certainly, go to Orlando's blog and leave your prayers and good wishes. But also, go to the bone marrow donor site. Not living in the US? Here is a link for Canadian donors , here is the British registry, and here is the one for Australia.. The rest of you, if there is one in your country, you can find it with a simple web search.

I have one more request. It would be great if any bloggers who read me could post the request on their own blogs and then pass it on to their coterie of blogger friends.

For Murre.
For Orlando.
For your next door neighbor.
And maybe, one day, for you.