Bone Marrow: Important stuff, eh?

Okay, so I've decided that since I'm involved with the Bone Marrow Donor Registry event on campus, I feel very strongly that I should share why I've become so passionate about it. I don't tend to get involved with things on campus much, although I did do Get Connected, but since I started Fast Grad, I started valuing my time at home a lot more and don't care to cut my vacations from school short. I don't really get involved that much because honestly, I'm pretty selfish. All I really think about is my grades and making myself chill out every once in awhile. But, I made a huge exception when I got the weekly student update email asking for volunteers for this event. I had no idea there was a National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, even though it makes perfect sense that there would be. Some people don't have family or friends that can donate to them, but they still get transplants. I guess I just never thought of it. I got super excited and emailed the person they instructed me to right away. I went on the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry's website and read through everything on there. Once I read about how easy the donation process is (at least compared to what I've heard, about how painful it is,) I thought about how painful it would be to have a disease that would require a bone marrow transplant, specifically I thought about leukemia. I've never experienced cancer myself, but I've learned about how cancer perpetuates in the body and the only way they know how to get rid of it effectively is through treatments that poison rapidly dividing cancer cells, but also poison all other rapidly dividing cells in your body such as hair cells, liver cells, and bone marrow. Bone marrow is very important within the body mainly because it produces red and white blood cells. Red blood cells are in charge of carrying oxygen and other nutrients throughout the body. White blood cells are in charge of keeping the body safe from foreign invaders. Your body can't function without these. I especially think of white blood cells, because if you don't have your white blood cells, you can get an infection very easily and there's really not much your body can do about it. The reason healthy people don't die from the common cold or an ear infection is because our bodies can fight them off. Without our immune system, bacteria and viruses would be able to take over our cells for their own purposes which would make them not able to do what they are supposed to do. Thinking about all this in my head gave me this exact conviction: The pain that I would go through and the small risks I would take through donating and going under anesthesia and the interruption to my life is very small compared to the world of good that it can do for someone that is suffering: a small child with their whole life ahead of them. A mother with young children who need her. A father who's adult children can't bear seeing their lifelong hero in such a state of weakness. There is a lot of pain that comes with cancer, not just physical pain of the person afflicted with it: but so much emotional pain for the afflicted and the friends and family who see this person being destroyed from the inside. I can't bear to think that I could go on with my life knowing that I had the ability to make a huge difference in someone's life for such a small sacrifice: I would be in a small amount of pain, maybe throw up from the anesthesia (unfortunately, my body doesn't like general anesthesia), and be out of work or school for a couple of days. To me, this is small. This is why I am so passionate about being able to be on the marrow donor registry. I hope that seeing my side of this will help others think about donating or maybe provide comfort to those who want to donate but maybe are scared to.