Ezer Mizion will on Tuesday hold a nationwide effort in the hope of significantly increasing its database of potential bone marrow donors.

This year’s ‘poster child’ is 4th grader, Talia Borochov, who lives in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood of Yerushalayim. Talia’s family is hoping a compatible donor will be found as their daughter fights leukemia for the second time in her young life.

According to Ezer Mizion officials, over the past ten years, they have amassed a database of 356,000 potential donors, which to date have saved 354 lives.

Anyone interested in becoming a member of the worldwide database can go to any major shopping center around Israel on Tuesday with a teudat zehut identity card. Persons 18-50 are able to give a blood sample without difficulty if they are healthy. The entire process, including the completion of paperwork, takes a very short time.

Experts explain that if a family member is ill chas v’sholom, then a compatible donor who is healthy may also donate, even over 50. Nevertheless, for the purpose of the database, it has been decided that age 50 is the limit.

Professor Reuven Or, the director of the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation at Hadassah Hospital explains that today, with many marriages among Jews crossing ethnic barriers, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, it is imperative to obtain as many new samples from this young generation as possible since their offspring will present new genetic realities that rarely existed in the past.

For additional information, one may visit the Ezer Mizion website at  http://www.ezermizion.org/

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)