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Jes Us 4 JackieRapper Nelly and His Sister Jackie Recruit Blood Stem Cell Donors
The donor testing fees for the nearly 1,200 new donors recruited at the June 21 drives were paid for by Nelly's charitable organization, 4 Sho 4 Kids, in cooperation with The Marrow Foundation®, a partner of the NMDP. The Jes Us 4 Jackie campaign hopes to recruit a donor for Jackie as well as the many other patients in need of marrow or blood stem cell donors. At any given time, 3,000 patients are searching the NMDP Donor Registry for a matching donor. The Registry lists more than 5 million potential marrow and blood stem cell donors and more than 25,000 cord blood units. Even so, not all patients can find a match and more donors are needed. The Challenge of Finding a Donor Marrow or blood stem cell transplants require matching certain tissue traits of the donor and patient. Because these traits are inherited, much like hair or eye color, a family member may be the closest match. If there is no matching family member, patients are more likely to find a matching donor within their own racial or ethnic groups. Black and African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Hispanic and Latino patients face a greater challenge in finding matched donors than White patients.Sharing Stories, Raising AwarenessJackie's story is helping to raise awareness of the need for donors. "It takes special people to turn a very personal story into a public awareness campaign that could help the thousands of patients, just like Jackie, who need donors," said Jeffrey W. Chell, M.D., NMDP chief executive officer. "The National Marrow Donor Program is very grateful to Jackie, Nelly and all the families who work to raise awareness of the need for more Black, African American and other donors so that all patients will have a greater chance of finding a match."
Upcoming Donor DrivesThe Jes Us 4 Jackie campaign continues its efforts with donor drives planned in several U.S. cities in coming months. (The schedule will continue to be updated as information becomes available.)
To learn more about Jes Us 4 Jackie, visit the campaign Web site at http://www.jesus4jackie.com/. Image Captions:
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Jes Us 4 Jackie staged a successful kick off June 21, with donor drives in St. Louis and Los Angeles. The drives recruited nearly 1,200 potential donors for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry. Jes Us 4 Jackie is a nationwide effort to bring attention to the need for marrow and blood stem cell donors, especially individuals of Black, African American or mixed heritage. The campaign was launched by superstar rapper Nelly and his sister Jackie Donahue. Jackie is fighting leukemia. A stem cell transplant offers her the hope of a cure, but like many other patients, she needs an unrelated marrow or blood stem cell donor.
The Pearl family also shared their story at the St. Louis donor drive. Matthew and Alexandra Pearl, brother and sister, were both diagnosed with Fanconi anemia, a rare, inherited type of 
