Bone marrow donor drive to be held in shopping centers

Visitors will give saliva sample to find compatible bone marrow donor for 12-and-a-half-year-old boy, Or Yosipov, who has leukemia.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Or Yosipov 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Or Yosipov 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Eighteen shopping malls around the country will later this month ask visitors to give a saliva sample to find a compatible bone marrow donor for a 12-and-a-half-year-old boy, Or Yosipov, who suffers from leukemia.
The Kanyonei Yisrael group will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday, February 28, to collect the samples, which are collected on a little stick from the inside of the mouth the same way a throat culture is taken. A spokesman said it is doing the campaign as a public service.
Or was first diagnosed with the blood cancer at the age of five. He was treated as a little boy with aggressive chemotherapy for three years; this caused him many side effects and much suffering, but he went into remission. The disease returned, requiring more aggressive treatment, his doctors said. Chemotherapy is not enough; instead, he needs a bone marrow transplant from a compatible donor. So far, a suitable match was not found in databanks in Israel or abroad.
Healthy people aged 18 to 55 are invited to give a sample. Anyone who is already registered in an Israeli bone marrow databank need not undergo the test.
The shopping centers where saliva samples will be taken are: Grand Canyon in Haifa; Canyon Nahariya; Dodge Center in Nazareth; Canyon Lev Hadera; Canyon Hasharon in Netanya; Canyon Merom in Ramat Gan; Canyon Hagiva in Givat Shmuel; Big Canyon and Canyon Sirkin in Petah Tikva; Honim Konim in Rishon Lezion, Canyon Rehovot; Outlook at the Bilu Center; Canyoter in Ness Ziona; Canyon Lev in Ashdod; Canyon Hadar in Jerusalem; Canyon Harel in Mevaseret Zion; Canyon Adumim in Ma’aleh Adumim; and Canyon Queen of Sheba in Eilat.
The data will be stored in the bone marrow databank at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem and shared to help others suffering from cancer and other disorders who require bone marrow.