The on-air campaign starts on March 21 and continues through March 30. Volunteers are needed to answer phones for two-hour shifts from 6 a.m. to midnight. To volunteer, or for more information, call 204-8405. The Temple University Cancer Center will sponsor a free bone marrow donor drive to help the thousands of people who are awaiting life-saving bone marrow transplants. The drive will be held in the Temple University Hospital main lobby from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. on March 12.
Short forms have to be filled out, and a small amount of blood is donated.
Volunteers will be enrolled into the National Marrow Donor Program's list of unrelated donors, where, hopefully, a blood donor is matched with a person needing a transplant. If there is a match, the donor is asked to return for confirmatory studies and marrow harvesting. Bone marrow transplantation is used to treat patients with various cancers, leukemias, lymphomas, aplastic anemia and other life-threatening diseases. There is a special need for African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and persons from other ethnic groups to participate and become donors. A federal grant provides free blood typing for everyone participating in this drive.