/PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of Aflac agents and employees will be queuing up in the next few days to have their cheeks swabbed as part of a new company initiative to boost the rolls of the National Marrow Donor Program. Aflac's Bone Marrow program kicks off at the company's annual national sales conference on December 12 in Atlanta.
The bone marrow registration effort was inspired by Steve Karas, an Aflac regional sales coordinator in Boston, whose stem cell donation recently helped save the life of Matthew Welling, a young Aflac claimant in New York. Matthew's parents had been told that without a transplant, he stood little chance of living beyond childhood. Matthew's doctors searched the National Bone Marrow registry for a donor and found Steve Karas.
"Through Steve's story we learned more about the pressing need for bone marrow registrants and wanted to do something as an organization to help," said Paul Amos, president and chief operating officer of the Georgia-based insurance company.
Indeed, the need is great. Individuals with life-threatening diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma must find a donor whose tissue type matches their own. Ideal candidates for a match are usually from the same ethnic background and race. The National Marrow Donor Program has about 11 million registrants today, but 61 percent of patients who need a bone marrow transplant do not receive one. And that's just among Caucasians. Among other racial groups, the match rate is far lower. For instance, about 83 percent of African Americans in need of a transplant do not receive one because African Americans are severely underrepresented on the donor registry. Individuals from racially or ethnically diverse heritage represent only 26 percent of the entire donor registry.
"On a daily basis, about 6,000 people search the registry looking for a life-saving match," said Dr. William G. Woods, director of the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "Increasing the pool of registrants increases the likelihood of a match, and will save lives."
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Showing posts with label kidney transplant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kidney transplant. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Atlanta Kidney Transplant Recipient to Represent Georgia in National Transplant Games in Pittsburgh
HHG Note: Another inspiring young man! Ken's story is a great reminder as to why we all need to say "yes" as a donor on our driver's license. Good luck in Pittsburgh, Ken!
While many medical students were preparing for board exams in 2006, Ken Sutha was already spending plenty of time in the hospital as a patient.
Diagnosed with kidney disease at age 10, Sutha's condition was stable through high school but worsened during college.
"I knew then that I'd have to either go on dialysis or have a kidney transplant," he says.
Sutha received his kidney from his father, Surachai, at Emory University Hospital in April 2006.
After the transplant, he wanted to find more ways to get involved with transplant patients. He become a camp counselor at Camp Independence in Rutledge, Ga., a camp for children diagnosed with kidney disease or with solid organ transplants. Now in his third year as a counselor, Sutha spends one week a summer sharing experiences with other transplant recipients.
He credits fellow counselors and campers with inspiring him to take up swimming on an advanced level, and his dedication to the sport led to another passion -- training for, and participating in, the National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games.
The Transplant Games, held this year in Pittsburgh July 11-16, are a nationwide sporting event for transplant recipients. The event is the only national athletic competition for recipients of all life-saving organ transplants, as well as the largest gathering of transplant recipients and donor families in the world. Sutha will represent Georgia and compete in the 100-meter medley and race-walking.
"The Transplant Games are something that kind of snowballed once I got into it and everyone found out," Sutha says. "One of the many reasons I am participating is to increase awareness among the general public of the critical need for more organ donors. I want to encourage others to think about organ donation and to talk to their families about it."
Now working on MD/PhD degrees with a focus on stem cell and bone regeneration research at Emory University and Georgia Tech, Sutha believes that his work in biomedical engineering ties in with his transplant surgery.
"I was fortunate enough to receive a living donor kidney from my dad, but in Georgia alone, there are more than 1,950 people waiting for a transplant, and someone to give the gift of life," says Sutha. "I want people to know that transplants work and I am a success story. I'm doing well and leading a normal life. In fact I'm doing more now than I would otherwise."
While many medical students were preparing for board exams in 2006, Ken Sutha was already spending plenty of time in the hospital as a patient.
Diagnosed with kidney disease at age 10, Sutha's condition was stable through high school but worsened during college.
"I knew then that I'd have to either go on dialysis or have a kidney transplant," he says.
Sutha received his kidney from his father, Surachai, at Emory University Hospital in April 2006.
After the transplant, he wanted to find more ways to get involved with transplant patients. He become a camp counselor at Camp Independence in Rutledge, Ga., a camp for children diagnosed with kidney disease or with solid organ transplants. Now in his third year as a counselor, Sutha spends one week a summer sharing experiences with other transplant recipients.
He credits fellow counselors and campers with inspiring him to take up swimming on an advanced level, and his dedication to the sport led to another passion -- training for, and participating in, the National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games.
The Transplant Games, held this year in Pittsburgh July 11-16, are a nationwide sporting event for transplant recipients. The event is the only national athletic competition for recipients of all life-saving organ transplants, as well as the largest gathering of transplant recipients and donor families in the world. Sutha will represent Georgia and compete in the 100-meter medley and race-walking.
"The Transplant Games are something that kind of snowballed once I got into it and everyone found out," Sutha says. "One of the many reasons I am participating is to increase awareness among the general public of the critical need for more organ donors. I want to encourage others to think about organ donation and to talk to their families about it."
Now working on MD/PhD degrees with a focus on stem cell and bone regeneration research at Emory University and Georgia Tech, Sutha believes that his work in biomedical engineering ties in with his transplant surgery.
"I was fortunate enough to receive a living donor kidney from my dad, but in Georgia alone, there are more than 1,950 people waiting for a transplant, and someone to give the gift of life," says Sutha. "I want people to know that transplants work and I am a success story. I'm doing well and leading a normal life. In fact I'm doing more now than I would otherwise."
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