Last summer, Harshal Mehta, a 19-year-old sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University, was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a form of leukemia. With Mehta without a donor, his family members brought their nationwide campaign to Duke last week to register as many ethnic minorities as possible.
In conjunction with Diya, the South Asian-American Student Association, last Thursday's bone marrow blood drive was held to further awareness of a common problem facing South Asian leukemia patients of almost impossible probabilities for finding a bone marrow donor, as well as to find a match for Harshal Mehta. "No one in his family matches his marrow type, so his life hangs by the thread of hope that an unrelated person who matches [will register] in the national marrow database and then donate," said campaign organizers Miku Mehta and Amida Mehta, Harshal Mehta's cousins. "We are fighting for him by registering as many people as we can in the marrow registry by registration drives nationwide."
The National Marrow Donor Program reports that the chance of a typical South Asian identifying even one match in bone marrow can be significantly less than that of a typical Caucasian.
Miku and Amida Mehta are campaigning for bone marrow donors at universities with strong South Asian student organizations to help host blood drives. Although they receive only about 30-40 people per drive, occasionally up to 200 people attend. Since Miku Mehta began working on the blood drives in November with his sister Amida, they have registered a total of 1,200 to 1,500 people.
"We are thankful for the people at the universities [who help us out]," said Miku Mehta. "Every person counts."
Diya got involved with the "Team Harshal" campaign in recognition of the imminent need to help Harshal Mehta. Even though the drive was held the day after war in Iraq broke, turnout was consistent.
"I think it went really well. It was a little difficult because of the war and the protests, but we got about 54 donors, approximately what other schools get," said Mrinali Patel, Diya community service chair.
Mydron Jones, one of the nurses at the blood drive, said a common misconception that decreases attendance is that actual bone marrow is taken from volunteers at the drive. Only blood, which is tested afterwards for compatibility, is drawn; volunteers are notified later and can choose whether to donate.
"Fear [is] what keeps people away," Jones said.
Miku and Amida Mehta still believe that despite any misapprehensions people have about donating, Harshal will find a match.
"[Harshal] is very humorous and [has] a positive attitude and [has been] very tough about this thing," said Miku Mehta. "We are confident that [donors] will be able to give him what he needs in order to live his life in a better way."
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