Someone is diagnosed with blood cancer every three minutes. Every 10 minutes, a person dies from blood cancer, according to Be The Match. This non-profit is the most diverse registry in the world, connecting patients searching for life-saving bone marrow with donors.
Lauren explained why it was important for her to join the registry. “One of the main reasons I did decide to join the registry is because of the lack of African American representation on the registry," she said.
Be The Match partners with registries worldwide provide doctors with access to 720,000 cord blood units and 30 million donors.
Lauren added, “It’s our responsibility to register, this is something that we can control. You can do this, think about if it was your children, your sister.”
But she’s no the only one trying to encourage people to become donors. Pro-football stars Roquan Smith, Xavien Howard, Cardale Jones, Tyrann Mathieu and Jaylon Smith are advocating for Be The Match to encourage volunteers to sign up.
Registries rely on donors to sign up because seventy percent of people awaiting a transplant don’t have a match in their family. You could be a cure and change someone’s life forever.