Q & A
Often times, people have many questions and concerns about the donation registry that they would like to have answered before they decide to commit to joining the registry. For this week’s blog post we decided to answer your questions about the registry and about Mission Marrow as an organization. We used Instagram to gather your questions and we’ll be answering them below in two sections: questions about the registry, and questions about Mission Marrow. See the answers below!
Registry Questions
Once you join the registry, you can donate to any patient who matches you, as your stem cells replenish themselves after you donate.
For PBSC donation, it is similar to donating blood, and for marrow donation, marrow is removed from your hip bone. See our blog PBSC vs Marrow for more information.
Once you join the registry, you are eligible to donate until you turn 44 years of age.
Once you donate bone marrow, you should be back to your normal schedule/activities with 2-7 days of non-strenuous activity.
Be The Match has not been able to do live events in light of the pandemic; however, they have switched to online based initiatives, and are able to recruit members using these.
There are no documented long-term effects of donating bone marrow.
Once you are a match, Be The Match will contact you regarding health screenings and the donation process via the information you listed upon joining.
You join the registry by swabbing your cheek to add your HLA typing to the registry. This can be done at a live drive or from your own home. See our blog How to Register Online and Swab from Home for more information.
There are no downsides or health risks associated with joining the stem cell donation registry.
Donation is NOT painful. Many associate donation with painful, invasive procedures, when in reality, all the donor may experience is slight discomfort.
Mission Marrow Questions
We are currently working to sign up new members to the registry via online swab drives, and are also working with Be The Match on some pioneer programs.
You can donate to our Go Fund Me page through the Donate tab.
Currently we are not accepting members; however, we would be more than happy to partner with you and hold a drive at your school. Contact Us for more information.
Yes! We have worked with the AKPsi Professional Business Fraternity at the University of Texas at Dallas, and would love to partner with you to hold a drive at your college campus. Contact Us for more information.
We took inspiration from the shape of a bone, as that is the source of bone marrow. We chose to emphasize more on the marrow aspect of stem cell donation as the concept is more familiar to our primarily high school audience.
Mission Marrow has been an organization for around a year and a half to date.
Mission Marrow has four co-founders: Neil Gupta, Abinaya Kannapiran, Sushmitha Nalluri, and Piyush Rath.
Yes, we have many future endeavors planned and we hope to expand nationally in the near future.
All of the questions we received fell into one of these categories, but if your question didn’t get answered or you weren’t able to submit one, feel free to DM us with your questions on Instagram @missionmarrow.tx
Be on the lookout for our next blog post on August 22!
