News Release April 10, 2008

Contact:
Julie Scott

303.361.2873
Bonfils Blood Center

Lifesavers Sought to Support Patients with Blood Cancers

April 12 Marrow Donor Drive coincides with Donate Life Month

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (April 10, 2008) – April, also known as Donate Life Month, is a time to raise awareness about the need for blood, marrow, organ, eye and tissue donation and to celebrate the generosity of those who have made the commitment to be life-saving donors. Family and friends are teaming together to host a marrow donor recruitment drive in honor of firefighter Chris Bryson, Matt Johnson and others suffering from blood-related diseases for which a stem cell/marrow transplant could be a cure. The Colorado Marrow Donor Program – a program of Denver-based Bonfils Blood Center – will be onsite at the Doubletree Hotel located at 743 Horizon Drive on Saturday, April 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to register potential donors to the National Marrow Donor Registry.

You can help by joining the National Marrow Donor Registry to support the thousands of people in the United States who each year are diagnosed with blood cancers. To register, potential donors between the ages of 18 and 60 will complete a health history and consent form and a small sample of cells will be collected for initial testing.

Approximately 70 percent of patients are unable to find a donor match within their family. Ethnically diverse patients have the greatest difficulty finding a suitable unrelated donor therefore, recruiting new and ethnically diverse stem cell donors is key to the ongoing success of the program. Due to the small representation of minority donors on the registry, federal funding was put in place to offset donor registration fees. There is a nominal fee for Caucasians who wish to join the registry however the city of Grand Junction will cover the fee for all city employees, including firefighters, who join the registry at the April 12 recruitment drive.

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 National Marrow Donor Registry. Since its inception in 1989, CMDP has added more than 70,000 potential donors to the registry and has facilitated hundreds of blood stem cell or marrow matches to support patients in need all over the world. For more information about Bonfils’ CMDP please call 800.619.1099 or visit www.bonfils.org.

Bonfils Blood Center celebrates 65 years of saving lives through its ongoing stewardship of the community blood supply and the instrumental role it continues to play in the lives of patients in need throughout Colorado and beyond. Bonfils Blood Center supplies blood to more than 200 healthcare facilities and needs to collect more than 4,000 blood donations weekly to meet the needs of the community and to be prepared for any unexpected events. For information about Bonfils Blood Center please call 800.365.0006 or visit www.bonfils.org