Searching for a bone marrow donor with an uncommon ethnicity.

I want to share a story about a man searching for an HLA matched donor for his wife. I changed the names of the story for anonymity but this is an authentic circumstance we often encounter in our field. Three weeks ago, Ben called Kashi Labs (BoneMarrowTest.com) with questions about HLA testing. He had been recommended to us by his wife’s transplant coordinator. He began to tell me his wife, Mary, was diagnosed with leukemia and they were searching for a suitable match for her stem cell transplant. He hoped to locate a match while his wife was still in remission; the doctors gave Mary about 5 – 6 weeks before she would be out of remission. This made time a critical factor. Additionally, Mary has an uncommon ethnic background to the United States. When a query of the National Registry was made, no suitable matches were available to Mary (please know the National Registry is making outstanding efforts to recruit more donors of many ethnic backgrounds).