Be The Match and Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal announced Wednesday a partnership to bring a marrow registry and fundraising event to Downtown Long Beach later this month, according to a statement from Be The Match.
The event, slated for March 25, will include music, food trucks and more. The community is encouraged to join the marrow registry to support Be The Match, which helps find matches for local patients battling Leukemia, Lymphoma and other blood diseases and offers services to patients going through the transplant process.
“I’m honored to work with Be The Match in bringing this event to City Hall, essentially adding many more names to the donor registry,” said Vice Mayor Lowenthal in a statement. “Every name that we add to the list creates that much more hope in finding a cure for patients battling a blood disease. There are many people that want to give of themselves to others in need, and donor drives such as this give people the knowledge and tools necessary to do just that.”
While some patients find a donor in their families, more than 70% turn to the Be The Match registry to find an unrelated donor.
“At Be The Match, we work with patients searching for their perfect match every day,” said Julie Korinke, Community Engagement Representative for Be The Match, in a statement. “Kathryn, a four-year-old girl from Southern California, has yet to find her match and is relying on the generosity of strangers to join the registry and hopefully be her cure. We are thrilled to partner with the Office of Vice Mayor Lowenthal to add more individuals to the registry so we can find matches for patients like Kathryn.”
Those interested in joining the registry must be between 18 and 44 years old, in general good health and willing to donate to anyone in need. Joining only takes about five minutes, according to Be The Match, and interested individuals must fill out a consent form and swab their cheek to be tested against searching patients.
Those who are not interested in or unable to join the registry can make a donation by clicking here.
The event is slated to take place March 25 at City Hall Plaza, located at 300 West Ocean Boulevard, from 10:00AM to 2:00PM. For more information about the event, click here.