Colorado Marrow Donor Program

Each day, thousands of patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases hope for a marrow donor who can make their transplant possible. 70 percent of these patients do not have a donor in their family.

The first step to become a bone marrow donor is to join the Be The Match Registry. Anyone age 18-60 who is willing to donate to any patient in need and meets the health guidelines can join.

The total cost to add a new member to the Be The Match Registry is about $100. This includes the initial tissue typing test needed to match donors to searching patients and other related cost. Others have contributed toward the costs for people to join, which is why we ask that each potential donor make a tax-deductible financial gift as close to this amount as possible.

Bonfils' Colorado Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) has two primary initiatives – to facilitate stem cell and marrow transplants to give patients with blood-related diseases a chance for survival and to recruit more potential donors to the Be The Match Registry.

In 2009, CMDP facilitated 32 blood stem cell or marrow matches and placed more than 4,700 potential marrow donors from Colorado and Wyoming on the Be The Match Registry.

Join the registry at any CMDP marrow drive, any Bonfils community donor center or online.

If you are a potential match, CMDP will contact you to undergo further testing to determine if you are a true match. If it is determined that you are a true match, you will undergo a physical examination.

You will be asked to donate cells through a donation of marrow or a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) donation. You recover quickly from the procedure and your cells are naturally replenished within a few weeks. You remain on the national registry until the age of 61. Donors are encouraged to keep their contact information current by contacting CMDP.

For more information about CMDP, call 303.363.2345 or 800.619.1099 or email Patty Owens.