I check my e-mail often. Once, twice, fifteen times a day. My messages are always read in the order they’re received.

The first is from an old friend who wants to do know what they can do to help. Anything, they write, really anything you need. They ask me how I’m feeling, if I think I’m getting better. They go on to ask who to contact and where to go to be tested, tested to see if they can donate their marrow to me—but, they write, I don’t feel comfortable donating to a random stranger.

I move on to the next e-mail. It’s an update from the grandmother of a 10-year-old boy named Michael. He loves the Phillies, and  hip hop  and probably everything else that ten year olds love. Last year he was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia—just like me—well here I’ll let his grandmother explain:

…underwent first ATG treatment, Allergic reactions to meds—Benadryl and Tylenol are mandatory before every transfusion….infection sets in…Ugh..Mikey is sicker than ever from the ATG… Great support from his school and all of his 4th grade classmates but, spending his 10th birthday in bed and transfusion was the pits. He choked on meds, refused to swallow pills….brusing, tears, and frayed nerves all around…Little sister, age 2, confused and bounced from one household to the other..Life as we knew it has become a bad dream….  [Michael]relapses in June, 2nd ATG on the 4th of July. Docs says treatment was not successful; only hope now is a bone marrow transplant.

NO one in family seems to be a match…Community effort to run a drive, 155 people turned out for testing..God please, let there be a match for Michael  and all the others out there waiting for their miracle…

I move on to the next unread e-mail. It’s asking if I have found a match yet? Just another concerned person wanting to know what they can do to help. Within the e-mail this person includes a link to a site—www.helpingjanet.com. Janet, is Janet Liang and she is 22 years old, about the same age as me.  She is a student at UCLA, and hopes to some day help save the world, but first the world has to help save her. Janet has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, she needs a bone marrow transplant. As of yet she hasn’t had any luck finding one, her brother wasn’t a match. She has a blog—like me—where she and gives video updates, writes about her experience with cancer and offers uncensored insight into being young, ill and frustrated.

And now it’s time to respond, again I do this in order. So it’s back to the first e-mail—the old friend who wants to do anything to help, even donate their bone marrow if need be, but only if it’s for me.

Sign up to join the National Marrow Donor Program here.

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