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Let’s just start this post with a few facts.
1. I am Jewish.
2. I am Korean.
I will let you figure out how that happened. If you look around this website enough you can figure it out. Otherwise, just accept these statements as fact.
Ok, onto the post.
I’m going to start with a story.
A couple of years ago my friend Jen (no not that Jen, and probably not that other Jen. And not the other, other Jen. It’s the other, other, other Jen who has referenced on this blog a few times over the years) sent me an email. It was an email asking people to get registered to be bone marrow donors (probably didn’t think that was where this was going, did you?). Anyways, it turns out a friend of a friend was in need of a bone marrow transplant and was trying to get the word out to local Jewish communities since it’s most likely people will find matches within their same ancestry. So Jen sent it to the few Jewish people she knew which was quite kind of her.
Receiving this email was great. Jen’s intentions were so good and I give her credit for forwarding the information along. I did have to chuckle though, because although I AM Jewish, I don’t think there’s a very good chance of finding a donor match for a Jewish patient with me. This leads into a whole other identity conversation that I will leave for another time.
However, even thought I probably wouldn’t have been a good match for Jewish patients, it turns out there aren’t that many Asian patients in the donor registry. It took me a while, but I finally signed up to get registered. I did it through the Asian American Donor Program which was linked to me through the Be the Match program which is open to all ethnicities. They sent me a kit so I could swab my cheeks and home and mail it in which will then get processed so I can be added to the registry. It’s a total cinch, so I’m asking you to do it!