Laleh Javaheri-Saatchi

Please consider coming out and registering as a bone marrow donor on Saturday, December 11th in New York City. There will be a volunteer-organized donor drive in honor of Mona Zarei, a young Iranian PhD student who was diagnosed with a very rare blood disorder a couple of years ago and who has been fighting for her life ever since. Mona's only chance at survival is a bone marrow donation. Her search in finding a matching donor has been unfortunately unsuccesful this far and we are hoping that this donor drive will be the one to save her life.

The donor drive will be held from 10am to 4pm at St. Bartholomew's Church at 109 East 50th Street, between Park and Lexington Aves (elevators to the third floor) in Manhattan. Registering as a bone marrow donor is simple and free, and will only take a few minutes. All that is required on the day of the drive is a saliva swab test and only when you are identified as a match for a patient will you be contacted for the donation process.

Because Mona's chances at finding a match are higher among people who share the same ethnicity, it is particularly important for Iranians to come together in strong support and register as donors. Iranians are severely underrepresented within the National Bone Marrow Registry, which makes it that much harder for anyone of Iranian descent to find a matching donor. This is our opportunity as a community to change that and to help avoid future loss of lives in our own community. There is no better gift you can give than the gift of life, please consider registering.

Visit our Facebook event page for more information about the drive, the bone marrow donation process and Mona, and if you can attend please RSVP to the event:
//www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144760605574...

If you are not in NY for the drive but live in the United States, visit www.getswabbed.org to receive a free registration kit by mail. If you are of Iranian descent and decide to register by mail, please consider filling in as your ethnic background “Iranian”. By doing so you will be increasing our community’s visibility within the National Bone Marrow Registry.