SEMA will team up with Rick Hendrick and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to sponsor a bone marrow testing program at the 2008 SEMA Show. Attendees are urged to come to the Marrow Donor Testing booth, co-located in the SEMA Cares booth in the Grand Lobby. Rick Hendrick’s charity organization, the Hendrick Marrow Program (HMP), has announced that it will underwrite 100% of the costs of anyone being tested at the Show (at a cost of $52 per test).
“Our mission is to help patients, and by adding new donors to the NMDP Registry, we may be able to offer someone a second chance at life," says Rick Hendrick, chairman and CEO of Hendrick Motorsports.
Hendrick established the Hendrick Marrow Program in 1997 after he was diagnosed with leukemia. Even though he did not need a marrow transplant himself, he wanted to help other patients who did not have the resources to find a marrow match or to cover the uninsured transplant-related costs that are often barriers to treatment. The HMP works in collaboration the NMDP in two key areas: donor recruitment and patient assistance.
Rick Hendrick, the HMP and SEMA invite you to join their team by becoming a volunteer marrow donor on the NMDP Registry. Each year, more than 35,000 children and adults are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases that could be treated by a marrow or cord blood transplant. Only 30% of those individuals will find a matched donor within their family. The remaining 70% must turn to the NMDP Registry to search for a volunteer donor.
You may be the one who can offer hope to these searching patients. To volunteer to work at the SEMA Cares booth/bone marrow registry drive, contact Judi Ritchie at judir@sema.org. For more information on the SEMA Show bone marrow registry drive, contact Linda Spencer at lindas@sema.org.
Stop by the SEMA Cares booth for information on two other important programs that SEMA supports: Childhelp and Victory Junction Gang Camp.
The 2008 SEMA Show will be held November 4-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information or to register for the Show, please visit www.SEMAShow.com.