registry | Ezer Mizion

So You Got A Call To Be A Stem Cell Donor?

Ryan Hyman - Photo — Ezer Mizion’s Director of Development: an ‘almost match’

“Good morning. Is this Mr. Hyman? I’m calling from the bone marrow registry. You have been found to be a match for a cancer patient!”

I was sitting in my office when I received that call. I had been tested sometime around 1998 and had not thought about that day in years. Then, quite literally, out of the blue, I was asked if I would be willing to go through further testing to confirm that I was a match for “the patient.”

My response was simple: tell me what to do!! The caller from the registry went through some basic info and made sure to tell me that while the procedure for me as a potential stem cell donor, was safe, it was still my choice and “are you sure you want to go through this process?” Continue reading So You Got A Call To Be A Stem Cell Donor?

Too Minor to Mention

Even severe pain would not prevent her from helping to save a life

Four years ago she had registered with Ezer Mizion’s Bone Marrow Registry, never expecting to actually be contacted. The call came as a complete surprise. It was the registry informing her that she was a possible genetic match for a young child. She could save his life! She was glad she was home to receive the call. Normally, she would be at work and wouldn’t have received the message until evening, perhaps even a couple of days later when she would get around to checking her messages. But today she was home and she told the caller to send someone right over.

Further testing had to be done and, for that, blood would have to be drawn. “Let’s get started right away,” she said. “I don’t want that child and his parents to suffer a minute more than they have to.” The Registry staff was grateful that she didn’t ask to procrastinate and made arrangements for the blood to be drawn that very day so that testing can begin.

The phlebotomist continues the story. Continue reading Too Minor to Mention

Because of You!!!

Ezer Mizion, the largest Jewish registry in the world, has recently celebrated a major milestone. Because of you, our good friends and supporters, we have passed the THREE-THOUSAND mark of transplants. That’s three thousand patients whose lives were saved! Three thousand families who remained whole! Three thousand grandmas and grandpas, Mommies and Daddies and so many tiny, frightened children traveled in one fateful moment from agony to joy, fueled by the electrifying words: We have a genetic match! Continue reading Because of You!!!

Vorkanash

memory game — Children’s matching games are fun but genetic matching can save a life!

She played matching games when she was a child. True, she wanted very much to win but losing wasn’t the end of the world. Now she is thirty. And losing this ‘matching game’ would be the end of her world… the end of her life.

She had been experiencing strong back pains for several months. When the pain intensified, she visited her doctor. Tests revealed that she had lymphocytic leukemia. Radiation and chemotherapy were not enough. Due to the aggressive character of the illness, she would have to have a stem cell transplant asap. Within a few, short weeks! “We are in a race against time,” explained Dr. Itai Levy, head of the Hematology Department in Soroka Hospital.

Her name is Vorkanash. Continue reading Vorkanash

Because of You!

December 2017 – BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY ACTIVITY SUMMARY

bmr 12 17 a — Bone marrow transplant being processed

34 lifesaving transplants
21 from personalized donor pools
2,691 total transplants
885,264 members in registry

Below are the donor pools that saved lives this month, and their total transplants. Continue reading Because of You!

A Hole in One

2017 Golf Closest to the Pin AK7X9484 (1) — Winner of Closest to the Pin: A Strike Against Cancer

Eight times! For eight years, Ezer Mizion has held its annual Thanksgiving Day Golf Tournament at Caesaria Golf Club in Israel. Golf aficionados gather for a day under the azure skies, each stroke being a strike against cancer. Many travel to Israel from abroad to join in the camaraderie of the event. Continue reading A Hole in One

Can You Buy Life?

pr bmr Inbar Ronen - bubble baby- w out mother ok to use — A small child who will grow up because someone just like you cared enough to fund the DNA testing of his donor

$50…it can buy a lunch for two… a nice shirt…a tank of gas…or a child’s life. Yes. For fifty dollars, a tiny toddler with cancer can be genetically matched to a bone marrow donor and his life will be saved.

For many cancer patients, a bone marrow transplant is their sole chance of survival. To be successful, both donor and recipient must share the same DNA. Ezer Mizion, the largest Jewish Bone Marrow Registry in the world, has saved over 2500 lives of people around the world but too many are still waiting for the match that will mean life itself.

Parents of tiny toddlers, whose mischievous giggles have long given way to a pathetic whimper, sit for hours in the pediatric oncology ward. Teenagers refrain from joining their peers who are planning their futures since, for them, there may not be a future. Young mothers and fathers clutch their kids tightly, praying so hard that these precious children will not have to grow up as orphans.

bmr 2 17 c — In the process of donating his stem cells so that another may live

Even the largest registry is not large enough. Your gift of $50 will help expand the registry. And then the phone at the home of one of these families may ring and a triumphant voice will announce: Yes! We have a match!

Click on the links to share the joy of families who had despaired of seeing the sun shine again. Donate generously on #GivingTuesday so that other families may share that same joy!

We Need You Now!

pr gen R' Chollak IMG_0349 unlimited use — Rabbi Chollak offering his unique brand of support to tiny victims of cancer

A conversation with Rabbi Chananya Chollak, International Chairman of Ezer Mizion

For the Yamim Nora’im, Ezer Mizion has set out on a major fundraising drive to raise the money needed to finance scanning tens of thousands of stem cell samples, so as to expand its International Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Rabbi Chananya Chollak, the organization’s International Chairman, took the time to speak with us personally about the need for public support to fund lifesaving activities, to tell us about Ezer Mizion’s goals, and to convey a message to the public. Continue reading We Need You Now!

Because of You!

23 lifesaving transplants
2,569 total transplants
865,626 members in registry
14 from personalized donor pools (see below) Continue reading Because of You!

Because of You!

July 2017 – BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY ACTIVITY SUMMARY

33 lifesaving transplants
16 from personalized donor pools
2,546 total transplants
860,453 members in registry

Below are the donor pools that saved lives this month, and their total transplants. Continue reading Because of You!