NMDP Partners with AirLifeLine

Free Air Transportation for Transplant Patients

The National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) today announced a partnership with AirLifeLine, the nation's oldest and largest national volunteer pilot organization, to provide free air transportation for marrow and blood stem cell transplant patients. Both the NMDP and AirLifeLine are based in Minneapolis and provide service nationwide.

As part of its partnership with the NMDP, AirLifeLine's nationwide network of more than 1,400 volunteer pilots will provide free air transportation to marrow and blood stem cell transplant patients. The partnership will allow these passengers to reach necessary medical care that will help extend or save their lives, and is expected to save economically disadvantaged patients hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in air travel expenses.

"During their treatment process, patients in need of a marrow or blood stem cell transplant need to travel frequently to their NMDP transplant center often located far from their home," said Dr. Jeffrey Chell, CEO of the NMDP "AirLifeLine's partnership with the NMDP will enable these patients to travel to their NMDP transplant center by air for free which will reduce the financial burden for them."

The NMDP has 145 approved transplant centers across the country assisting thousands of patients each year. Under this new partnership, volunteer AirLifeLine pilots will be able to transport patients in need to and from NMDP facilities free of charge.

"AirLifeLine's mission is to ensure that people with medical and financial need have equal access to quality medical care. Our partnership with the NMDP is the perfect example of two organizations pooling their resources to help people in need reach medical care," said David Crane, AirLifeLine's Director of Outreach & Development. "We're proud to partner with the NMDP to serve more transplant patients in this way."

For nearly 25 years, AirLifeLine has helped to ensure equal access to healthcare and improve the quality of life for thousands of people throughout the United States by coordinating free air transportation for people in need. A network of over 1,400 volunteer pilots across the country donates the direct cost of every flight. Its volunteer pilots flew almost 4,000 missions for more than 8,500 passengers to over 400 destinations, saving passengers more than $4 million in travel costs. More than 40 percent of AirLifeLine flights support children and their families.

AirLifeLine's services include coordinating free air transportation for:

• Medical missions for people with financial need to reach medical care far from home.
• Transplant missions for time-critical travel associated with a transplant procedure.
• Humanitarian missions for people with financial and other special needs.
• Cargo missions to transport blood, organs, or tissue.
• Disaster-relief missions in times of crisis.

For more information about AirLifeLine visit their Web site at www.airlifeline.org.