Good luck with the "Bow and Arrow" Test

This is a first-hand account from Marty Blue about a recent bone marrow drive in Wayland, MA. Marty went to Tuck for business school (where Mike went) and is married to Jeff Blue (who was a classmate of Mike and me at Tuck). As Marty was leaving to be tested, one of her three daughters yelled "Good luck with the Bow and Arrow test." Read on for more details:

When Jeff and I received Mike's email about Bonnie needing a Bone Marrow transplant and learned that her best chance to match was with someone of Eastern European Jewish decent we automatically agreed that I should be tested given that's my background. We have been closely following Bonnie's progress and have wished we could do more to help. However, being on the East Coast that has been difficult. It was so nice to be able to do something that could help them, or maybe even somebody else.

Mike quickly followed up with an email on the blood marrow donor drive that was being conducted in Wayland, MA which made the whole progress that much more simple. I contacted many friends to ask if they too would be willing to be tested. I was amazed at how many have already been tested and thus are already in the donor network. For those who could not make it to Wayland, some went ahead and received testing kits via The Gift Of Life web site although from what I have heard this seemed to be slightly more complicated.

The donor drive in Wayland was organized as part of a Bat Mitzvah project. Most synagogues encourage all Bar and Bat Mitzvahs to participate in some type of Community Service around their 13th birthday. This particular project seems to be extremely effective and we hope to co-opt the idea when our eldest has her Bat Mitzvah.

When I arrived I was pleased to see a steady stream of participants. The process was quite simple. Participants are first asked to fill out forms and to read material which describes the process if you are a match. Gift of Life is very careful to make sure that participants understand that if you are willing to be tested that you would be willing to go ahead and donate if you are a match for someone. All materials stress that it is a 'significant commitment' and strive to make donors well informed about what the donor process involves. The goal is to make sure that if someone is a match that they will go forward so as not to give false hope to patients. The second step is to be screened to make sure you are a viable candidate. Examples of someone who would not be viable are those with heart disease or auto immune disorders. The third step is a simple cheek swab with a q-tip(actually 4 cheek swabs). The goal is to get actual cells on the swabs, not saliva.

I was surprised to find out at the screening that the entire donor process is anonymous. Donors are only permitted to know the recipient's age, sex,and diagnosis. However, they also had many stories and photos of donors and recipients together so it seems that at some point if both parties agree that they can meet. The stories of matches were quite inspiring. The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation was founded in 1991 by the family of a leukemia patient. Over 4 years they conducted hundreds of donor drives and eventually found an exact match after more than 60,000 people were tested. We should all keep encouraging everyone we know to be tested. There are drives scheduled in Los Angeles, CA, Palo Alto,CA and Long Island, NY in August and September.

When I returned to work on Monday there was a company wide email that informed employees of a combined blood and bone marrow drive being conducted at Reebok that week. In my 13 years at Reebok I have seen many blood drives, but never a bone marrow drive. It was great to see that more people are being tested every day.

Being tested was also a good opportunity to share with our daughters what the Tonnesons are going through and remind them how fortunate we are (never really works but we keep on trying!) As I left our youngest daughter wished me good luck with my 'bow and arrow' test! Our thoughts and prayers are always with Bonnie and Mike.

Marty Blue

For anyone who is interested, Jeff is of "Southern California Surfer Descent" and thus wasn't eligible for the Gift of Life bone marrow drive. Here's a picture of Marty, Jeff and their three daughters:



Thanks, again, Marty, for the first-hand account, and Jeff, for providing the family photo.