New Hyde Park Memorial Students Host Bone Marrow Donor Registry Drive

After students at learned the sobering statistics of minorities suffering from diseases that can be treated with bone marrow transplants, the school held a registry drive urging residents to step forward and become donors.

The efforts of Rafiya Peerbhoy Khan, founder of the South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters, came to the attention of the Muslim Student Association and Seekers Club of New Hyde Park. Khan’s goal was to encourage minority groups to help those in need of stem cell or marrow donors, which led to the start of SAMAR in 1992.

In 2007, Dr. Ron Jacob, an alumnus of New Hyde Park Memorial High School and someone who lost his own close friend to leukemia, joined SAMAR as the Medical Coordinator. The organization has already traveled the country trying to gain more registrants for marrow donors.

Approximately every five minutes someone is diagnosed with a disease that can be treated with a bone marrow transplant. The statistic is graver for minorities who have less than a 30 percent chance of finding a donor. Amongst these minorities are people of South Asian heritage, who compromise only about 1 percent of the bone marrow registry. Out of 9 million bone marrow registrants, only 160,000 are South Asians, but about half of the South Asians who are found as a match change their minds about partaking in the donation process.

After learning about SAMAR, students decided to host “Swab for Sam,” a bone marrow drive at the International Cultural Club night for Sam Arikupurathu, an alumnus of New Hyde Park Memorial High School who was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after his 16th birthday. The drive registered 24 people.

The students of New Hyde Park that participated in the drive urge anyone between the ages of 18 and 60 to visit the National Bone Marrow Registry to take the first step to become a bone marrow donor.