Marrow program drive targets registrants of South Asian decent

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Donation sites: Berkeley: 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at ISKCON, 2334 Stuart St., (510) 649-8619.

 

Marrow program drive targets registrants of South Asian decent

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<!--date-->Article Launched: 07/13/2007 03:45:08 PM PDT

 

Hundreds of volunteers are gearing up to run a "mega-drive" this weekend in the Bay Area, with the goal of adding 7,000 registrants of South Asian decent to the National Marrow Donor Program. The drive stems from the quest by several Fremont families to help Vinay Chakravarthy, a 28-year-old physician of Indian decent and a former Fremont resident diagnosed in November with life-threatening leukemia. Chakravarthy urgently needs a bone marrow transplant, as chemotherapy hasn't cleared the cancer.

But so far, no match has been found for Chakravarthy, casting a national spotlight on the critical shortage of donors for those of South Asian descent, one of the least represented racial groups in the nation's bone marrow registry. Genetic matches are far more likely between two people of the same race and ethnicity. Without a close genetic match, the risk of tissue rejection rises sharply.

But of the 6.6 million registrants in the National Marrow Donor Program, only 100,000 are of South Asian origin. For South Asians needing marrow transplants, the odds of finding a match are between 1 in 20,000 and 1 in 100,000.

Volunteers will staff the donation sites listed below. Healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 60 are encouraged to join the registry, which requires providing a cotton swab passed over the inner cheek and filling out a form, along with a commitment to become a donor should a match be found.

For more information, visit:

http://www.helpvinay.org

 

 

 

Donation sites:

Santa Clara: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Varstreet Inc., 2620 Augustine Dr., Ste. 120, (408) 836-5483.

San Jose: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Evergreen Community Center, 4860 San Felipe Road, (408) 836-5483.

San Jose: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Lakshmi Ganapathi Temple, 32 Rancho Dr. (650) 704-1720.

Sunnyvale: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Saravana Bhavan Restaurant, 1305 S. Mary Ave., (408) 460-3651.

Sunnyvale: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Komala Vilas, 1020 East El Camino Real, (408) 460- 3651.

Berkeley: 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at ISKCON, 2334 Stuart St., (510) 649-8619.

San Carlos: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at NEKTAR Therapeutics, 150 Industrial Road, (408) 533-3829.

Livermore: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Hindu Community and Cultural Center, 1232 Arrowhead Ave., (510) 676-4999.