A New York City father’s plea to save his son’s life went viral and gave a big boost to the bone marrow registry, but they still haven’t found a match.<\/p>\n
Still, he says the overwhelming response has changed his son’s outlook.<\/p>\n
“This will save his life”<\/p>\n
Juan Uribe’s first ever social media post<\/a> has more than 20 million views.<\/p>\n In it, he says, “Hello, My name is Juan and I’m posting this because I need your help to save my son.”<\/p>\n Uribe said Max, 15, is on the path to bone marrow failure.<\/p>\n “All of his blood counts are very low,” he said.<\/p>\n “The only way to treat that is a bone marrow transplant, so you replace the diseased marrow for healthy bone marrow,” said Dr. Jaap Jan Boelens, Max’s primary physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “This will save his life.”<\/p>\n Right now, no perfect match for Max exists in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) database, which is why Uribe took to social media.<\/p>\n He said part of the reason why it’s been difficult to find a match is because Max is 50% Colombian. In the entire NMDP database, only 13% of donors are Hispanic.<\/p>\n How to join the marrow donor registry<\/p>\n Finding out if you are a match is as simple as submitting a cheek swab to NMDP through the mail or at an organized event.<\/p>\n “It’s safe to donate,” Boelens said.<\/p>\n He said first, a workup is necessary.<\/p>\n “If you get through that and you are deemed to be healthy, you can safely donate,” he said.<\/p>\n “My mission is we want to get 1 million people added to the donor registry by April 1,” Uribe said.<\/p>\n He said the response has been uplifting for both him and Max.<\/p>\n “He actually is feeling like we might actually have a chance,” Uribe said.<\/p>\n If they reach their goal, thousands of lives can be saved. \u00a0<\/p>\n Boelens estimates tens of thousands of lives are saved each year through bone marrow transplant. \u00a0<\/p>\n Following Uribe’s post, NMDP noted a 40% increase in Hispanic\/Latino registrations to the database.<\/p>\n Visit\u00a0my.nmdp.org\/TeamMax<\/a>\u00a0to find out more about how to join the donor registry.<\/p>\n