History
Gift of Life was founded following a successful bone marrow registration drive to save the life of Jay Feinberg, a 23-year-old analyst with the Federal Reserve.
Feinberg was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991, and from 1991 to 1995 a campaign was organized to register new donors. He was told that a transplant could save his life, but he would die because he couldn't find a matching donor. A patient's best chance of finding a genetic match lies with those of similar ethnic background. Unfortunately, the worldwide registry was not representative of all ethnic groups, and Jay was Jewish. There was an urgent need to add diversity to the registry, and time was of the essence. Since tissue type is inherited, like eye or hair color, a patient's best chance of finding a genetic match lies with those of similar ethnic background. For Jay, those were donors of Eastern European Jewish descent.
Since May 2004, Gift of Life has had a partnership with the National Marrow Donor Program, through which they share donor databases. Because of Gift of Life's success in the Jewish community, its recruitment strategy and programs have since become a model for other organizations recruiting in minority populations, including Swab a Cheek, Save a Life, founded by transplant recipients Evie Goldfine and Lisa Horowitz, and Sara Jane Harris.
Read more about this topic: Gift Of Life Bone Marrow Foundation
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