Health professionals frequently confront life and death issues that require them to take extraordinary measures to address the health concerns of patients around the country. In communities of color, those valiant efforts are all too often impacted by dire circumstances, which include a gross lack of awareness of and access to life-saving procedures and technology.
Be The Match®, the nationally renowned blood and stem cell donor organization, has embarked on an intense campaign to increase the availability of critical health information in Black communities and expand its national donor registry. The organization is sounding the alarm to draw attention to the need for Black and minority program participants.
Rolling out publisher and CEO Munson Steed recently spoke with Dorian Price, a leukemia patient on the Be The Match Registry, during a segment of Health IQ. Price candidly described his ongoing cancer battle and his hopes to find a stem cell donor soon.
What has your journey with Be The Match been like?
The journey with Be The Match has been pretty great so far, despite my diagnosis with blood cancer and the battle I’m fighting. [The people at the organization] have been there with me every step of the way, coaxing me and uplifting me through the work they’re doing with the stem cell registry. Through the organization, I’ve had the opportunity to share with Ty Montgomery, a professional football player with the New Orleans Saints, and he signed up for the registry after a conversation I got to have with him.
What do you need at this point?
I just wrapped up my 14th round of chemotherapy, and I receive blood transfusions twice a week.
I need a stem cell donor match, but the chances of finding a match are relatively low because the percentages of African Americans on the [donor] registry are low in comparison to other ethnicities. Right now, a Black person has only a 23 percent chance of finding a match compared to our White counterparts, who have a 77 percent chance of finding a match. The disparities are glaring, and it shows how desperate we are as patients to have people step up to save a life.
Read more of Price’s story and find out how to help save his life and others on the next page.
