Woodway teen works to raise awareness about the need for South Asian bone marrow donors

Soren Ghoral is a teenaged Woodway resident
with a passion to save lives by recruiting bone
marrow donors. Soren (right) with a donor he recruited.

By Soren Ghoral

When I was younger, I had gone to the hospital to see my aunt who had surgery. I asked what had happened to her, and my mom said she had surgery to save someone's life. 

A 1-year-old baby was diagnosed with leukemia, and they needed my aunt’s bone marrow to save her life because my aunt was a 10/10 tissue type match. 

I was in awe that the medicine some people need is within others and that individuals can help to cure cancer and save a life.

Every day, over 157 people in the United States die from blood cancer. 

But some of those deaths can be prevented by everyday people like us. By donating our healthy stem cells to a patient that matches our tissue type, we can cure over 70 types of blood cancers and diseases.

But patients need a donor that matches their tissue type, which is usually only found within the same ethnic group. 

For south Asian patients it's especially difficult to find a match, because South Asians make up only 3% of the donor registry.

Soren appears at community gatherings to explain SAMI and enroll donors

As a result, a South Asian patient has less than a 40% chance of finding a stem cell match. Compare that to other ethnic groups that have > 80% chance of finding a match. 

I started the South Asian Marrow Initiative (SAMI because I wanted to help people and improve the outcomes for cancer patients. I've found that when people learn they can save a life within their community, they are more than willing to join the registry. The goal of SAMI is to get the word out and to register people into the national donor registries.

When people learn they can save a life within their community,
they are more than willing to join the registry

We have partnered with the National Bone Marrow Program and DKMS, and we host events at community gatherings to educate and register people. Anyone can join the registry. 

We are hoping to get the word out that everyone's healthy stem cells can be a cure for someone in need. People should join the registry at one of our events through a cheek swab, or by having a kit mailed and they can join from home.