The bone marrow drive provides medical center employees and visitors to help give the gift of life by joining the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) Registry.

“We are excited to host this drive, which could help save the lives of cancer patients waiting for a marrow transplant,” says Marita Wehde, RN, bone marrow transplant search coordinator at Siteman.

“Thanks Mom!" is the first NMDP nationwide marrow donor drive, held in conjunction with Mother''s Day in May to honor mothers by giving the gift of life to someone else.

“Each year, thousands of patients are diagnosed with life-threatening blood diseases such as leukemia,” says Wehde.  “For a chance to survive, these patients need healthy marrow or blood cells to help their bodies make new, healthy blood cells.”

People age 18-60 in general good health are encouraged to volunteer by filling out a short questionnaire and a small swab of cheek cells in taken with a cotton swab to determine the tissue type to be matched against patients who need a donor.  This information is added to the NMDP registry.

The NMDP is the hub of a worldwide network of more than 500 leading medical facilities, the Siteman Cancer Center being one, in marrow and blood cell transplantation.  More than 260 patients receive marrow or blood cell transplants through this Network each month.

The Siteman Cancer Center''s Bone Marrow Transplant Program is one of the largest in the world.  Since 1975, more than 2,000 patients have received bone marrow or stem cell transplants for diseases such as leukemia, Hodgkin''s disease, and advanced stages of breast and ovarian cancer through the program.

For more information about the “Thanks Mom! Marrow Donor Recruitment Campaign,” call the Siteman Cancer Center at 314-747-7222 or 800-600-3606.