Life in These Bones

I love to talk about moving from consuming to contributing; about focusing more on others than on yourself; about being willing to give.

My friend Jessica sent me an email a little while back. An email inviting me to add myself to the Donor Registry for the National Marrow Donor Program. I have to confess that I desperately wanted to simply hit the Delete key, sending the mail into oblivion and removing one email from the pesky dozens that had invaded my inbox.

I could not.

A little voice inside whispered to me. “Are you really a contributor?”

I fought back, “it sounds incredibly inconvenient and potentially painful!”

The voice continued, “You’re ‘inconvenience’ could save someone’s life.”

I was out of arguments. I took a couple minutes and filled out some information online, a couple days later I had a kit in the mail. This morning I gave them a tissue sample.

It wasn’t that difficult.

They had provided 4 little Q-tip looking things and I simply swabbed the inside of my cheeks with each one. I put them in the envelop, sealed it, and sent it off in the mail.

I have no idea when, if or how I might be called on to be a contributor to someone but I can tell you that I am genuinely excited for the opportunity.

How might you give up convenience or comfort to contribute?

Every day 6,000 patients look through the bone marrow donor registry looking for a match (Click here for a short news story and article with more info). Wanna join the list? If so, hop over to www.BeTheMatch.org and join the registry…if you do, please tell me about it! Feel free to retweet or Facebook this to encourage others to do the same!