ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

The original drawing by Amanda Visell is the secondary reason for doing this. The primary reason is helping out Amanda’s friend Justin who has relapsed with Leukemia. The last time around they fought it with chemotherapy. This time he is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant and none of his family members are a match.

Leukemia is a cancerous disease that prevented me from ever meeting my grandfather. If you can, get tested. I don’t want to sound all hippie, but lets start out the new year by helping each other. Here’s Amanda’s words from her blog at Daily Du Jour:

Hello people. So my “dorkasaurus” friend Justin has relapsed with Leukemia. The last time round they fought it with chemotherapy. This time he is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. None of his family members are a match. This is where all of us come in.

Please get tested to see if you are a match. To get tested is really simple and only requires a mouth swab or a very quick blood test. There is a $50 fee for processing the marrow sample, but if you donate blood too, then the cost is waived. You can also get a kit mailed to you.

If you get tested I will send you an original drawing. Its a great way to start the new year.

Here is Justin’s email. He can fill you in on the info you need to know.

justin@thedutchpress.com

If you are in the greater LA area, you can go directly to City of Hope to donate blood and get tested at the same time.

If you aren’t in the LA area, here are some links for registering with the National Bone Marrow Registry, the entire registry is a worldwide network and is also linked in with the Red Cross, so there are lots of places to go if you aren’t in the LA area. Here are links to figure out where the closest is for you:

http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_Now/join_now.html
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_in_Person/index.html