In major laboratories in Israel and in the US, test tubes are speeding through the process of genetic testing in a race against time to save lives. In this world of microscopes and chemical compounds, the underlying aim is the battle against death as labs work double shifts to genetically test the 62,000 samples of Ezer Mizion’s most highly successful bone marrow drive that took place at the end of January. The drive was undertaken to save the life of six year old Amit and so many other Jewish cancer patients whose only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant.

Genetic matching is essential to the success of the transplant. As ethnicity plays a large part in genetics, a Jewish registry is vital to Jewish cancer patients around the globe. in 2008 alone, Ezer Mizion’s International Jewish Bone Marrow Registry has facilitated 116 life saving transplants.

As Amit’s family waits together with so many other Jewish families in hope and prayer, 15,000 of the 62,300 blood samples that were collected at Ezer Mizion’s bone marrow donor recruitment drive on Jan. 21, have already been processed and four complete donor-patient matches have been found! With the help of G-d, four Jews will live because of the wonderful people who stood in line for hours in order to give their blood samples and the compassionate Jews worldwide who contributed generously to fund the expensive genetic testing.

DNA elicitation procedure from blood samples is a complex process. The lab testing is done in a secure and specialized manner, to get accurate results and avoid critical errors. The nature of such procedures is that they take time, but all possible efforts are being made to carry them out at the optimal speed.

Amit, the sweet six year old leukemia patient who was the focus of this past drive, is waging a fierce battle with the illness and the urgency in finding a match for her – and for other cancer patients – is even greater than before.

Ezer Mizion is accelerating the lab testing process in order to complete the procedure as soon as possible. It is the wish of Jews throughout the world that the telephone in the home of Amit will soon peal with the joyous ring of: A match has been found!

(Ezer Mizion)