Rapper Nelly finishes up his concert and speaks to his fans on amore serious note. He has a purpose. Nelly is leading a crusade toencourage minorities to become bone marrow donors.
This superstar rapper trying to recruit bone marrow donors as heis takes a personal story and turns it into a public awarenesscampaign. The campaign could help thousands of people.
Nelly’s older sister, Jackie Donahue, 30, was diagnosedwith leukemia in 2001. Donahue’s only hope for survival is abone marrow transplant. Easier said than done.
Nelly has launched the campaign “Jes Us 4 Jackie,”sponsored by his “4 Sho 4 Kids” non-profitorganization, to create awareness on the importance for minoritiesto become donors in the National Bone Marrow Registry. “JesUs 4 Jackie” has held several donor drives across the UnitedStates. This nationwide effort brings attention to black and mixedrace individuals. “Jes Us 4 Jackie” hopes to findDonahue a donor as well as many other patients in need ofmarrow.
Bone marrow transplants require matching tissue traits of thedonor and patient. Most of these traits are inherited, and mostoften a family member is the closest match. But that is not alwaysthe case. More than 70 percent of patients cannot find a matchwithin their families. Failing a familial match, patients are mostlikely to find a matching donor within in their own racial orethnic group.
Currently, 4 million Americans are listed in the National BoneMarrow Registry. Fewer than 400,000 of those people are black.
African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian,Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders and Latino patients face alarger challenge of finding a matching donor than whitepatients.
The National Marrow Donor Program conducts national educationalprograms to recruit different ethnic groups to become volunteerdonors.
“Many minority patients are not finding matches, and theirbest chance of finding one is in a diverse community,” saidEva Trevino of the National Marrow Donor Programs.
The National Marrow Donor Program reaches diverse communitiesthrough ethnic and mainstream media, community groups andindividuals, such as Nelly. By reaching these communities, largenumbers of minorities came forward to be volunteer donors.
According to the NMDP Web site, increasing the number ofminority volunteers has improved the likelihood of finding a donorfor minority patients. The number of minority transplants performedfor patients has tripled since 1995.
Minority patients will benefit from more African-Americans,American Indian/Alaskan Natives, Asian/Pacific Islanders andHispanics joining the registry.
Trevino said that the National Marrow Donor Program is thankfulthat Nelly is “lending his support by doing donor drives inseveral cities across the country, as well as, lending support toour whole organization. [Nelly] shows and supports how important itis for minorities to join the registry.”
The donor drives that Nelly sponsored in his hometown of St.Louis and in Los Angeles recruited nearly 1,200 potential donorsfor the National Marrow Donor Program Registry with a heavypercentage of these donors being African American.
“The National Marrow Donor Program is very grateful toJackie, Nelly and all of the families who work to raise awarenessof the need for more black, African-American and other donors sothat all patients will have a greater chance of finding amatch,” said Jeffery W. Chell, the NMDP chief executiveofficer, in a recent article for the NMDP. The “Jes Us 4Jackie” campaign continues its efforts with its next donordrive in Houston at Texas Southern University on Nov. 8.
