I rarely talk about "good causes" and that sort of thing in my journals. If you're bombarding people, telling them to donate to this, help out with that, it becomes difficult to care. Better to save it for something serious.

This is serious.

In July 2011, a guy who went to my highschool, Jack Chin, was diagnosed with leukemia. He's 23 years old, he hasn't responded well to chemo, and he needs a bone marrow transplant. The problem is, he doesn't have a match in the registry, and his condition is worsening. He will die if a match can't be found, and the chances of finding one aren't likely--due to his ethnicity his odds of matching with an unrelated person are 1 in 20,000.

I cannot tell anyone to register to be a bone marrow donor--organ donation, even with something like marrow, can be difficult to think about, is a serious commitment, and above all it is a personal choice. However, Be the Match does a really good thing for leukemia patients, many of which are children/younger people. Given how easy it is to sign up for donation, and how great the benefit (saving someone's life) is, please, especially if you are of an underrepresented ethnicity or are of mixed race, educate yourself about bone marrow donation. Please also consider having a conversation about it with your friends/family too--you never know who may be a potential match for someone out there. If you'd like you can point them back to this journal, where I've collected some links that summarize the issue:

Information on Blood Diseases and on Bone Marrow Donation:
Information on ALL, the type of leukemia that Jack was diagnosed with
Other diseases that are treatable with a bone marrow transplant
The NMDP Registry FAQ
Information on how matching a donor to a patient works
Medical guidelines for those who want to register
Information on what might be asked of a potential donor
Information on what marrow donation entails for the donor
Myths and facts about donation

On Jack Chin and other patients
An article on Jack which includes his own thoughts
Another article on Jack
""It was really painful, constantly getting infections, allergic reactions, and surgeries." Jack recalls that after finding out about the cancer, he was repeatedly hospitalized for chemotherapy. The first time he was hospitalized for 45 straight days, and endured chemotherapy and blood transfusions on every one of those days. "
Jack's facebook page. If you look around in here you can find similar stories from other patients who also are looking for donors. I couldn't possibly link every single one, though.
The Helping Janet campaign Jack isn't the only patient waiting on a bone marrow donor. Janet's further along and needs a donor by June.

I want to emphasize a couple things:
You don't need to have your blood drawn to register. It's just a cheek swab and some papers.
You don't need to find a bone marrow drive to register. The organization will mail a kit to your home or wherever that you can swab and send back to them. I imagine that a drive is more efficient however.
You may not have to have surgery should you donate. Most of the time marrow is taken out in a process similar to giving blood.
Time is running out. The tests that will tell if a given person is a match for a patient take time, and someone that is a candidate for a transplant and is waiting for a match is already in bad shape.

Thanks for reading. I know that you may not feel comfortable with the idea of donation but please consider this: even if you aren't the match yourself, perhaps you can be the one to find him or her. If you have any questions, I will try to answer them.

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<sub>I don't plan to post [art] here again for a very long time, if ever. No promises that I won't wipe everything, so if there's something you like, or something I drew for you, whatever, I suggest saving it. (though that's the case with any artist really, they're not obligated to host their work online). That isn't to say that I'm gone. A few people may have noticed the occasional comment/favorite from me. I plan to keep on doing that.

Firewind business: I have to take back my previous statement, and I'll be sending out notes shortly. Here is the list that I possess currently. If I have missed something that has been finished, please note me or comment here. You can see the official list here: [link]
(2x) 1-Month Subscription from *Chajiko
(2x) Fully-colored commission from *AngelicDragonPuppy
Comic strip featuring winner's characters from ~goldentreefrog
(2x) Fully-colored commission from ~Junidoe
(2x) Shimenji from ~Junidoe (see here) - [link]
(2x) Fully-colored picture of the winner's characters *oofuchibioo [link] [link]
(2x) Fully-colored drawing from ~Fiorii [link] [link]
(2x) Fully-colored drawing of your character's main weapon/prop from ~Numdenu
(2x) Fully-colored drawing from ~feelingwhimsy [link] [link] [link] [link] (although the last is a wip, I'm only lookiing at art done for me.)
(2x) Comic or fully-colored picture from *JynxMasterXP
(2x) Fully-colored drawing of a single character from ~Silmetrion
(2x) Fully-colored drawing from ~xSpiralStarx

On the other hand: please note me or comment here if I owe you anything.</sub>