National Donor Day Calls for Heroes

Give the Gift of Life on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is traditionally filled with gifts of flowers, chocolates and love. This Valentine's Day, the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) and The Marrow Foundation^® along with Saturn Corporation, its United Auto Worker (UAW) partners, and many of America's leading non-profit health organizations are issuing the call across the nation for everyday heroes to come forward for the gift of life to help patients in need during the sixth annual National Donor Day - America's largest one-day donation event.

Held at more than 450 of Saturn's dealerships on Friday, February 14, National Donor Day provides the opportunity for people to learn about the miracle of giving the gift of life through donation.

You Can Participate In 3 Ways:

• Become potential marrow or blood stem cell donors by joining the NMDP's Registry of volunteers at participating Saturn dealerships. Potential donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good general health. Joining the Registry is easy; all it takes is a commitment to save someone's life and a simple blood test. While the NMDP welcomes everyone who is medically eligible and willing to volunteer, there is a critical need for more donors from the Black, African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
• Blood collection will be available at many Saturn locations and where not available, the public can fill out a blood pledge card that will be forwarded to the local blood bank for follow-up contact and blood donation.
• All visitors will be encouraged to fill out an organ and tissue donation pledge card and equally important, tell their next of kin of their decision to become an organ and tissue donor.

"We believe National Donor Day is the largest annual one-day blood, organ and tissue donation drive in America," said Jill Lajdziak, Saturn vice president of sales, service and marketing. To date, National Donor Day has resulted in the collection of approximately 37,000 units of blood and added 7,000 potential donors to the NMDP's Registry.

The Need For Donation

• Approximately 10,000 life-saving transfusions take place daily, yet fewer than 5% of Americans donate blood. Winter months, including February, are often times of critical blood shortages.
• Each year more than 30,000 people are diagnosed with diseases that can be cured by a marrow or blood stem cell transplant - 70% of them will need an unrelated donor for their transplant.
• Nearly 75,000 patients are currently awaiting organ donation for a life-saving transplant, and sadly, an average of 16 die every day because a suitable donor is not found in time.

National Donor Day organizations include the American Association of Blood Banks, American Liver Foundation, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, America's Blood Centers, Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, Children's Organ Transplant Association, Coalition on Donation, Emergency Nurses Association, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, National Kidney Foundation, National Marrow Donor Program, National Minority Organ & Tissue Transplant Education Program, Saturn Corporation, The Marrow Foundation, United Auto Workers and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The NMDP is committed to its mission to extend and improve life through innovative stem cell therapies. As of January 31, 2003, the NMDP has facilitated more than 15,000 transplants throughout the world for patients with life-threatening diseases such as leukemia and aplastic anemia, as well as certain immune system and genetic disorders. The NMDP offers searching patients who do not have suitable family donors a single point of access for all three types of stem cells used in transplantation: marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood. Through its extensive U.S. and international Network, the NMDP manages the largest and most diverse Registry of volunteer donors, including more than 27,000 cord blood units. Matching donors to patients is only part of NMDP's lifesaving mission. The NMDP also provides support for patients and physicians and conducts research studies aimed at increasing opportunities for and improving the outcomes of stem cell transplants.

More Information

To find out more about unrelated transplantation as a life-saving therapy, becoming a marrow or blood stem cell donor, donating your baby's umbilical cord or other ways to help, please call (800) MARROW-2.