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National Marrow Registry Takes Part in a 'Celebration for Life'

4 February 2000

National Marrow Registry Takes Part in a 'Celebration for Life'

    MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 4 -- The National Marrow Donor Program(R)
(NMDP) once again is teaming up with Saturn and the United Auto Workers (UAW)
for National Donor Day 2000, a "Celebration of Life."  The 3rd annual event
will take place on Saturday, February 12 at more than 400 Saturn dealerships
nationwide.  Representatives from the NMDP and other organizations will be at
participating dealerships, providing information about the NMDP.  Marrow
drives will be held at selected Saturn dealerships, giving visitors the chance
to join the national Registry of volunteer marrow and blood stem cells donors.
Funding from The Marrow Foundation(R) will allow people to join the Registry
free of charge on National Donor Day.
    National Donor Day will be announced at a national press conference on
Friday, February 11.  The announcement will take place at 10:00 a.m. at the
Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place in Chicago.  Other regional press events
will take place across the country during the week, including Dallas/Fort
Worth and San Francisco.  The regional events will address the need for more
minority volunteer donors on the NMDP Registry and for other life-saving
organizations.
    National Donor Day began in 1998 to educate people about and encourage
donation of the five points of life, which are whole blood, marrow, platelets,
organ/tissue and cord blood.  In the first two years alone, National Donor Day
added more than 2,400 potential volunteer donors to the NMDP Registry.
    Created in 1986, the NMDP maintains a national registry of 4 million
volunteers, who are willing to donate marrow or blood stem cells to patients
in need.  The NMDP now performs more than 100 life-saving marrow and blood
stem cell transplants each month.   Since its inception, the NMDP has provided
more than 9,000 transplants, developed education and recruitment initiatives
to increase the diversity of the Registry, and established patient advocacy
services for patients in need.
    The Marrow Foundation(R) is a valued partner of the NMDP.  The two
partners have been contributors to National Donor Day since its beginning in
1998.  The Marrow Foundation was created in 1991 by the late Admiral E.R.
Zumwalt, Jr.  The Foundation and the NMDP share the same goals of increasing
the diversity of the national Registry, assisting patients with financial
needs as they search the Registry for a suitable donor, and sponsoring
research to improve the understanding and outcome of unrelated marrow and
blood stem cell transplantation worldwide.
    For more information on marrow or blood stem cell transplantation, contact
the NMDP at 800-MARROW-2 or http://www.marrow.org .  The Marrow Foundation can
be contacted at http://www.themarrowfoundation.org