WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Maya Angelou Research Center on Minority Health at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the National Marrow Donor Program will sponsor a marrow donor drive targeting African-American, Latino/Hispanic, Native American and Asian people Saturday July 8 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 950 File St.
“Patients in need of a marrow transplant are more likely to find a matching donor from someone of the same racial and ethnic heritage,” said Kristy. F. Woods, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Angelou Research Center. “Of the 756 Americans from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in need of a marrow or blood cell transplant, roughly 18 percent have been matched with a donor. There is an urgent need for more donors—especially from the African-American population.
“We’re looking for men and women ages 18 to 60 in good health who will volunteer themselves as potential donors. No blood sample is necessary. We’ll ask them a few questions about their general health, have them to fill out a form and allow us to obtain a cheek cell swab to place them in the potential donor pool.”
The first annual Give Life—Give Hope Minority Bone Marrow Recruitment event will be held from 8 a.m. until noon and from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. on the first floor of the File Goodwin Center at Mt. Zion. For information, contact Stephany Coakley, (336) 716-7045, scoakley@wfubmc.edu or Katherine Ferrell, (336) 896-0345, kferrell@nmdp.org.
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Media Contacts: Jim Steele, jsteele@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. The system comprises 1,187 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.