Registration is Sunday for regional bone marrow donors

   On Sunday, Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor will host its first Bone Marrow Donor Registration Drive. Amy’s Army is cosponsoring the drive.
   Amy’s Army is a group of dedicated volunteers based in Pittsburgh, Pa., who have sponsored and supported bone marrow registration and screening programs throughout the Northeast. Since its formation two years ago to help find a bone marrow transplant for Amy Katz, a young girl from Pittsburgh who suffers from Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), Amy’s Army has added more than 7,000 names to the ranks of potential marrow donors.
   Amy herself is still waiting for a match, but Amy’s Army has already found matches for eight other patients in need.
   The HLA Registry, New Jersey’s leading independent bone marrow donor registry, will conduct the screening and testing from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Beth El. The HLA Registry is one of the largest donor registries of the congressionally sanctioned National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), a network of 100 donor centers throughout the United States.
   The HLA Registry assists patients with potentially fatal blood diseases in finding compatible, unrelated donors for life-saving bone marrow transplants, and to help patients and their families raise funds for HLA tissue-typing.
   The HLA Registry has helped hundreds of families with their searches for donors and has been responsible for successfully matching patients with donors resulting in more than 600 transplants since its establishment.
   Anyone in good health, age 18 to 60, is eligible to become a potential bone marrow donor, but the need is far greater than the supply of those willing to step up to meet it. Every year bone marrow donors save thousands of people suffering from leukemia and lymphoma, but thousands more die before a match can be found.
   According to Rabbi Jay Kornsgold, "Beth El is dedicating itself to becoming part of the solution to the shortage of marrow donors and organ donors. Our congregation has embarked on a long-range program to recruit new marrow donors and organ donors every year. No one should die waiting for a marrow donor to be found."
   As it has done in the past, Amy’s Army is raising the necessary funds to keep the blood tests free of charge. Any contribution made toward the $70 per test cost will offset future drives and is welcomed and appreciated.
   Beth El Synagogue is located at 50 Maple Stream Road, West Windsor. Directions can be accessed at www.bethel.net.
   On the Web: Amy’s Army, www.amysarmy.org. The HLA Registry: www.communitybloodservices.org/bone_marrow_donor_1_hla.htm.