By Cheryl Powell, Beacon Journal medical writer
Akron Children’s Hospital is encouraging area residents to make a potentially life-saving decision by joining the national bone marrow donor registry.
The pediatric hospital is hosting two bone marrow drives this week on its main campus in Akron and at its Beeghly campus in Boardman.
The Akron event will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday in the atrium lobby of the hospital in downtown Akron. The Mahoning Valley event will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday in the community room of the hospital’s Beeghly campus.
The hospital is paying for the tests with support from the Friends of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Akron Children’s Hospital. Donations also will be accepted.
Potential donors are sometimes asked to pay some of the registration costs. According to the National Marrow Donor Program’s Be the Match Registry, the total cost of adding a new member to the registry is about $100.
A marrow transplant can be a cure for thousands of patients with life-threatening diseases, such as leukemia and lymphoma.
Only about 30 percent of the people who need a life-saving transplant are able to find a donor within their family, according to the program. The rest must find a match through the registry, which includes more than 10 million potential donors worldwide.
Finding a match can be particularly challenging for African-Americans and other minority populations, who typically are underrepresented.
For Jimmie Radcliff, the national registry has been a lifesaver.
The 14-year-old from Canton recently had a bone marrow transplant to potentially cure his leukemia.
The GlenOak High School student was active in sports until earlier this year, when what appeared to be lingering back and hip pain from a volleyball game turned out to be cancer, said his aunt, Talaya Patterson. She is raising Jimmie because his mother died from cancer seven years ago.
After a match couldn’t be found within his family, Jimmie’s doctors at Akron Children’s Hospital turned to the national registry to locate a match — a task that was extra difficult because he’s African-American. Two cord blood donations from newborns in Georgia and France were used for the procedure.
Jimmie agreed to serve as a poster child for this week’s bone marrow drive to help raise awareness about the cause, his aunt said.
“This can happen to anybody,” Patterson said. “It doesn’t matter what race you are. It could be your friend, cousin or somebody you know. If you can, please just get tested to help somebody, you never know who you could help. I just encourage everybody to really think about how you can be somebody’s hero and save a life.”
To join the registry, people must be between age 18 and 60 and in good overall health. For more information about the Be the Match Registry, visit www.marrow.org.
Free quit-smoking event
Akron General Medical Center is offering free help for smokers who want to kick the habit from 8 a.m. to noon Thursday in the main lobby of the hospital, at 400 Wabash Ave.
The event is part of the Great American Smoke Out, a national day designated to help smokers quit.
Participating exhibitors will include Akron General’s Heart and Vascular Center, the McDowell Cancer Center, Pfizer, the Summit County Tobacco Prevention Coalition and the American Cancer Society.
Free pulmonary function screenings will be offered by Akron General’s Respiratory Care Department. In addition, “cope kits” designed to help smokers deal with cravings will be available.
Sign-ups will be available for free smoking cessation classes, which will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on six consecutive Tuesdays beginning Nov. 22 on the main campus. Registration also is available by calling 330-344-2462.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell
