NMDP Award Presented

San Francisco Resident Recognized for Commitment to NMDP Mission

Fran McDermott lost a friend to leukemia. In 1987, Arthur Sohcot started the Heart of America Bone Marrow Donor Registry in San Francisco after being diagnosed with leukemia. Before he died, he asked Fran to take responsibility for continuing the program.

In 1987, McDermott took over for Arthur as a champion of the issue of marrow and blood stem cell donation and transplantation. McDermott focuses her efforts on the recruitment, management, and care of donors. In that role, McDermott is responsible for informing potential stem cell donors about the donation process. In addition to being extremely dedicated to her work, she understands and appreciates the value of donors, patients, life and making a difference.

At its annual Council Meeting in November, the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) presented McDermott with the Jeffrey Mark Harris Award in recognition of her commitment towards the NMDP and its goal of saving lives. The award is presented each year to a person who exemplifies the highest level of personal integrity and demonstrates a strong commitment to the NMDP and its mission of saving lives through marrow and blood stem cell transplantation.

McDermott works to ensure that new volunteers on the Registry have a strong commitment to donating stem cells if they are ever matched with a patient. A potential donor may come up as a match in one year, five years, 10 years or maybe longer. Once listed, a donor remains on the Registry until the age of 61. Consequently, it is important for potential donors to keep their Donor Center up-to-date with address and medical changes. She also works closely with a potential donor when he or she comes up as a match for a searching patient by coordinating every step of the process with the NMDP. This includes confirmatory tissue testing, a physical examination, an information session and finally the donation.

"I feel fortunate to be able to help volunteer donors to become heroes in giving a total stranger a second chance at life. I am honored to be the first recipient of the Jeffrey Mark Harris Award," McDermott said. The Jeffrey Mark Harris Award, unveiled this year, was established in honor of Jeffrey Mark Harris and his parents. Since Jeffrey's death from complications associated with leukemia, the Harrises have been advocates of unrelated blood stem cell donation. In his memory, Jeffrey's parents, Fred and Sandy, created the Heart of America Bone Marrow Donor Registry with the simple goals of finding matches and giving patients second chances by recruiting volunteer marrow and blood stem cell donors for the NMDP.

The award presented in November was part of the NMDP's annual Council Meeting in Minneapolis. Approximately 850 people from the NMDP's Network in the United States and abroad attend this three-day gathering. Individuals who play roles in matching volunteer marrow and blood stem cell donors with unrelated transplant recipients are brought together to participate in workshops and seminars focusing on marrow and blood stem cell transplantation issues, including umbilical cord blood banking and new methods of tissue matching.

Created in 1986, the Minneapolis-based NMDP facilitates unrelated marrow and blood stem cell transplants for the treatment of leukemia and more than 70 other diseases through an extensive network of national and international partners. By recruiting committed donors, maintaining the largest and most diverse Registry of potential volunteer donors in the world and offering patient services, at least 140 patients receive stem cell transplants through the NMDP each month. The NMDP's Registry contains more than 4.5 million volunteers and is the only one that searches all three sources of stem cells available: marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood. As of Sept. 30, 2001, the NMDP has facilitated more than 13,000 transplants throughout the world.

For more information about the NMDP, or how to become a donor or marrow and blood stem cell transplantation, call 1-800-MARROW-2.