Local Marrow Donor Program Registers Over 100,000 Potential Lifesavers!

June 8, 2005

The Marrow Donor Program of Central and South Texas  has reached a long-time goal of National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). Mega Center.  The NMDP considers centers that have registered 100,000 donors into the National Bone Marrow Registry as Mega Centers. The Marrow Donor Program in San Antonio is the 7th U.S. donor center to meet this milestone

The STBTC marrow donor program has long been commended for its quality of work and dedication to establishing a strong minority donor base. At the 2005 NMDP spring meeting, the STBTC marrow program was recognized for increasing minority donor registration by 11.93%; the national goal was 3%.  The Marrow Donor Program of Central and South Texas has the highest number of Hispanic donors in the database, making the donor file desirable to transplant centers around the world.

Yvonne Ybarra, Assistant Director of the NMDP in San Antonio, remarked, “Although meeting the Mega Center milestone is wonderful, it is a greater accomplishment for us to know that the higher number of donors on the Registry means that more matches will be found for patients in need of transplants.”

The Center located at STBTC covers an area that includes San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Victoria, Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley and the surrounding areas. For information on how to register for the marrow program, please call (800) 292-5534.

The program began at STBTC in 1991 by a woman who had lost her son to leukemia. Linda Bayer, then Director of Recruitment at STBTC, traveled to NMDP headquarters in Minneapolis to learn how to get started.  Bayer personally  registered the first donor for the program and less than 15 years later, the registration has surpassed 100,000.

The NMDP is dedicated to facilitating unrelated marrow and stem cell transplants to individuals diagnosed with fatal blood diseases, such as leukemia.  Currently, the national registry consists of over 5 million potential donors. However, a person’s best chance of finding a suitable match is within their own ethnic group. Minorities comprise only 25% of the registry, making it more difficult for African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities to find a lifesaving match. The program strives to provide a diverse database by educating all individuals of the need for more minority volunteer donors.