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The Gift of Life

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Imagine if you had the ability to save a life. Can there be a greater feeling of satisfaction than knowing that because of you, someone will live to see a lifetime of sunrises?

Imagine, now, being in a situation where your very life depends on the gift of a stranger. What is it like to live each day, not knowing if that gift will ever be forthcoming?

Joe Antanoff is waiting. Diagnosed this past November with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, this father-of-two needs a bone marrow transplant. Though family members have the best odds, neither of Joe’s siblings is a match. Now it is time to widen the familial circle to include all Ashkenazic Jews. Statistics suggest that Joe’s chances of finding a match are higher within our ethnic group.

Registration with the National Bone Marrow Registry is simple. All it requires is a simple blood test OR cheek swab. During the rest of this month, the $60.00 registration fee is waved if you enter “Joseph” as the promo code.

Please consider registering. It might be the first step to gifting life.

As we are taught in Sanhedrin 37a, to save a life it is as though one has saved a world.

5 Comments leave one →
  1. Sunday, 21 February 2010 8:33 pm

    excellent post. there are lots of ways to *do* tikkun olam! what our kids see us engaging in today, they will perceive as just the way it is and it will, indeed, make a difference in our world!

  2. Robyn permalink
    Sunday, 21 February 2010 10:55 pm

    FYI – I registered for the Bone Marrow Registry and all I needed to do was a few cheek swabs – no needles …. so if people are needle-squeamish, they can still register!

  3. Monday, 22 February 2010 11:21 am

    Done. Actually, done in the 90’s for Jay Feinberg. I hope they still have a record. I wonder if there’s a way to find out.

    Two little corrections on the post: great should be greater and in the next to last paragraph, you say that you can do a simply blood test or a blood test. Something tells me that you mean something else.

    Especially in this time of loss, I love the idea of giving life (which one can also do by giving blood).

  4. colleen permalink
    Thursday, 4 March 2010 2:56 pm

    Thank you so much for posting about our good friend Joe!
    I’ve haven’t checked in with your wonderful blog for a few weeks, and was delighted to find the post about Joe’s search.
    Much gratitude from all of Joe’s friends and family.
    Colleen and Brian Crystal

    • Frume Sarah permalink*
      Thursday, 4 March 2010 8:26 pm

      Please keep us posted on Joe and his family!!

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