Can I donate bone marrow?

Can I donate bone marrow?

Yes you can.
How do you become a donor?

If you're at least 18 years old and meet certain health requirements, you can register to donate through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) — a registry of people around the world who are willing to donate bone marrow and blood stem cells to total strangers. Registration is simple and only requires that you fill out a health history and give a blood sample. You can contact the NMDP through its Web site, or you can call your local chapter of the American Red Cross. The Red Cross often participates in bone marrow drives.

You may be charged a one-time fee of roughly $100 to pay for testing your blood, although that fee is sometimes waived during bone marrow drives. Bone marrow drives are held to encourage people to donate. If a match is made, all fees pertaining to the actual donation are covered by the recipient.

Once you've registered with the NMDP, a technician will use your blood sample to match you with people in need of bone marrow. You might be called to donate within a few months or it could be years. It's also possible that you may never match someone in need.

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Recourse CNN-Health Library-'How to be a bone marrow or blood stem cell donor'