Bone Marrow Donor Drive Events | Health

WHAT: Bone Marrow Donation Drives in Northwest Arkansas

WHEN: Thursday, June 28, 3:30-6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Two locations - 

Bentonville Boys & Girls Club

2801 N. Walker

Bentonville, Arkansas

AND

Rogers Boys & Girls Club

409 South 8th Street

Rogers, Arkansas

Local Northwest Arkansas teenager Zak Heald, a senior-to-be at Gravette High School, has teamed up with Simple Pleasures business owner Elaine Miner to organize two bone marrow donor drives in the area June 28. Both locations - at Boys and Girls Clubs in Bentonville and Rogers - will hold the drive from 3:30-6:30 p.m. A bone marrow donation drive includes a short registration survey of a prospective donor followed by a quick swab of that person's cheek for DNA. The procedure takes minutes and is painless. A donor's DNA is then put into a national registry for bone marrow donations. Potential donors should be between the ages of 18 and 60.

Within the last month, Kansas City resident Kris Miner - Elaine Miner's daughter-in-law - was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (CTCL), which has transformed into Stage 4B Large Cell Lymphoma. She is one of only 10 people in the world at any one time to have this type of cancer. Her PET scan revealed tumors on her skin, lungs and lymph nodes. The best hope Kris has for recovery is a bone marrow transplant. Currently, of the more than 17 million people registered as bone marrow donors, not one provides a close enough DNA match for Kris.  

The public is invited to attend these free donor events, which are designed to raise awareness and education about bone marrow donation as well as offer the opportunity to quickly and painlessly register to become a donor.

For more information about this event, see: www.bethematchfoundation.org/goto/TeamKris. For interviews featuring Kris and her story, see: http://kris-miner.com/media/.