That’s right. Your bone marrow is a life saver and it doesn’t take much to sign up and save a life.

“It was one of the most emotional moments of my life,” says Steve Karas. “Short of fathering my own three sons, clearly this is the greatest thing I’ve ever been able to do.”

Karas, 51, was a perfect match for Matthew Welling who was suffering from a rare bone disease. Karas had signed up for the National Marrow Donor Program registry 17 years prior and was shocked when he received the call

“My heart went a hundred miles an hour, and I couldn’t even conceive of what this meant,” Karas recalled. “It was a little 1-year-old boy with this horrible disease called osteopetrosis, and the only cure was a bone marrow transplant, and would I be willing?

11 million Americans have volunteered to be marrow donors. Every day in the United States, an estimated 6,000 people need a transplant. Joining the registry involves completing a donation kit (available at marrow.org). Cotton swabs are swiped on the inside of the cheeks to determine the tissue type.

Karas reports that the actual marrow harvest process is relatively simple, with little pain. He ended up donating through a nonsurgical outpatient procedure

“I felt like I had the flu, and those symptoms lasted three or four days,” he said.

Source: CNN