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DKMS is Driving for Donors with Pat

“One Child's Dream / Driving For Donors was started by 11 year old Leukemia patient Pat Pedraja. Pat found out that so many people with Leukemia and other blood disorders are dying because they can't find bone marrow donor matches in order to get a transplant. There is a critical need for donors (especially minority donors) on the National Marrow Registry and most people don't know how easy it is to join the Registry. Pat set out to raise awareness about the need for marrow donors and started a National Marrow Drive to add 2007 donors to the National Marrow Registry. Pat and his family drove across the country in an RV, to 32 different cities in 3 months and held marrow donor drives. There is a fee for tissue typing to add donors to the Registry so Pat raised over $140,000 by selling ad space on his bald (from Chemotherapy) head! Pat added over 5500 donors in 3 months and is continuing doing marrow drives, raising money and promoting awareness about the need for marrow donors.”

Pat is now 13(well it will be official on Friday) and continues his fight to register marrow donors and this year DKMS is joining his team. This summer DKMS will go “on tour” with the Driving for Donors RV and will recruit marrow donors nationwide. But right now he is on a 5 day bus tour of the Southeast with the Do Something Dirty Hands Caravan, be sure to check out his blog for constant updates about Pat and the Dirty Hands Caravan.