November 18, 2010 (Showbiz PR Wire):Healthcare is a key focus area for Being Human: The Salman Khan Foundation.

Being Human has joined hands with the Marrow Donor Registry (India) to create awareness of how marrow donors can save lives. The aim of the initiative is to develop a large pool of voluntary marrow donors for transplants that are life saving to patients suffering from blood cancer, thalassemia, aplastic anemia, congenital immunodeficiency states and other such blood related diseases.

Any patient who requires a bone marrow transplant and does not have an HLA-matched donor (within his/her family) will need to search international registries for a potential donor. Explaining the urgent need for awareness, the MDRI spokesperson said Salman Khans Being Human joining hands with the MDRI will enable patients here in India to undergo this life saving procedure. Since Indians are poorly represented in these international registries, chances of finding an HLA matched unrelated donor are very small. To add to that the cost of procuring these stem cells from international registries is about Rs 15-20 lakh. We could save substantially on these costs if the MDRI were to be functional chances of finding a match will be higher and the cost of transplant would also decrease.

Salman Khan said "Donating marrow is a simple act, it's as simple as donating blood. But this simple act can save the life of someone suffering from blood cancer, thalassemia and other major blood-related diseases. I am pledging my marrow today with MDRI so that in an emergency, if a patient's sample matches mine, I can be reached to donate my marrow. The more the donors, the more lives we save. So I urge that all of you who are blessed with good health come forward and pledge your marrow so that the less fortunate can benefit from this thoughtful act."

About MDRI (Marrow Donor Registry India): With the purpose of developing a registry of committed ,voluntary, unrelated donors for patients requiring bone marrow transplantation -MDRI was established in April 2008 as an NGO at the Tata Memorial Centre . What makes the MDRI functional?-More than 100,000 donors need to be registered to have a functionally viable donor registry.-All men and women between the ages 18-50 years who are free of any illness will be eligible for donor recruitment.

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--Showbiz PR Wire