Dec 4

Hello everyone! My mom is doing great and enjoying being home. We are currently in the process of organizing a bone marrow transplant drive in honor of her. We are hoping to make it BIG and to get hundreds of people to join the registry in order to find her and others a bone marrow match! I was contacted by a man named Michael Guglielmo, who spent time in prison but now dedicates his life to finding people bone marrow matches. What a blessing that he lives so close to us! He became passionate about finding bone marrow matches after his own son needed a match at the age of 6 months. Since then he has added thousands of people to the registry within the past 5 years. I am so inspired by him!

We are going to be meeting with him one day this week hopefully to get this drive going. We will be needing volunteers to attend the meeting this week and then to help with things such as logistics and publicity. Publicity is most important and I know that each of you will be able to help us with that. So please start spreading the word to your coworkers, friends and family about this bone marrow drive. It only takes 10 minutes to join the registry and involves only a cheek swab.

If you are not in NH, please join the registry online and they will send a kit to you in the mail. You could be the match for my mom or another person in need! It is the most amazing gift you could give someone! The website to do so is: http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx

 If you feel like you want to help in an even bigger way, you can organize your own bone marrow drive in honor of my mom. People are much more likely to get tested if they see a face with the drive. The website to do this is: http://www.dkmsamericas.org/recruit

I know that between everyone who reads this and everyone each of you knows, we have the potential to make this big! Our whole family is so thankful to be able to be proactive in this process, and my mom really wants to be able to make a difference in others' lives in this process. So please take a few moments to help spread the word and join the registry!

*Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering at the drive and attending the meeting this week so Emily and I know if we have enough volunteers!