DKMS Announced Partnership with CaringBridge®

Organizations link together to offer blood cancer patients and their families help and support

NY, NY (Friday, January 16, 2009) — DKMS, the world’s largest and most successful bone marrow donor center, today announced its partnership with CaringBridge, a nonprofit Web service that connects families and friends when someone is facing a serious medical condition, treatment or in recovery.

A CaringBridge Web site provides a place for patients to post journal entries and photos, and receive messages of hope and encouragement. DKMS offers patients and their families support and the opportunity to work together to organize bone marrow donor drives in order to recruit donors who will save lives.

Together, DKMS and CaringBridge connect patients and their families with others who are experiencing the same heartache or who want to help.

More than 894,000 Americans live with leukemia, lymphoma or other blood cancers. Every five minutes someone is diagnosed and every ten minutes someone dies.

“It is the mission of DKMS to give every blood cancer patient a second chance at life by recruiting donors from every race and ethnicity,” said Katharina Harf, EVP, DKMS Americas. “We strive to provide the best resources, services and information for patients and their families, and CaringBridge complements this by offering people a medium where they can communicate and help spread the word for more people to register as bone marrow donors."

“Transplant patients and their caregivers greatly benefit from the ease of communication that CaringBridge provides,” said Judy Trucano, partnership manager, CaringBridge. “Instead of spending time making phone calls and sending emails to keep everyone updated, their energy can be focused on recovery.”

About DKMS
DKMS was founded in Germany in 1991 by Peter Harf and Professor Dr. Gerhard Ehninger, after Peter lost his wife, Mechtild, to acute leukemia. Today, DKMS is the world’s largest bone marrow donor center with over 1.8 million registered donors. Since its founding, DKMS has facilitated more than 16,000 transplants.

The mission of DKMS is to give every blood cancer patient a second chance at life. We work with patients and their families to organize bone marrow donors drive to recruit donors from every race and ethnicity. We inspire hope and healing by matching our donors with patients around the world in need of a bone marrow transplant.

DKMS Americas is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization. Learn more about bone marrow registration and DKMS by visiting www.dkmsamericas.org.

About CaringBridge
CaringBridge® is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization offering free personalized Web sites to those wishing to stay in touch with family and friends when facing a serious medical condition, treatment or recovery. CaringBridge’s mission is to bring together a global community of care, powered by the love of family and friends, in an easy, accessible and private way. CaringBridge is the conduit of information, hope, support and encouragement during a serious health condition. The goal is to ease the burden of keeping friends and family updated while also providing a way for them to send their love and encouragement. CaringBridge connects more than 20 million families each year, and there have been over half a billion individual visits to personal CaringBridge Web sites. For more information please visit www.CaringBridge.org.

Contact
Maria La Gamba
DKMS Americas
212.209.6714
maria@dkmsamericas.org