DKMS to Sponsor Hong Kong Dragon Boat
Festival in Effort to Reach Diverse Communities
Nonprofit leading the fight against blood
cancer to raise awareness of the need for more diverse
bone marrow donors
New York
DKMS,
part of the world’s largest bone marrow donor center,
today announced its sponsorship of the 27th Annual
Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, an
annual sporting and multicultural event that celebrates
the fifth moon of the lunar calendar. DKMS
will be on hand at the festival, which takes place on
August 12 and 13 on Meadow Lake in Flushing, Queens, to
raise awareness of the need to diversify the number of
bone marrow/blood stem cell donors.
Ethnicity plays an important factor in
finding an unrelated match, as those who share the same
ancestry are more likely to have similar HLA
characteristics. Asians and other minorities are
severely underrepresented in the bone marrow registry,
with Asians making up only 6% of the donor pool.
“DKMS is proud to be a sponsor at this
year’s Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival,” said Carina
Ortel, CEO of DKMS US. “The
need for donors is critical, especially for those from
racially and ethnically diverse communities, who face
much lower odds of being able to find a match. With
every new individual who swabs, we are one step closer
in finding a lifesaving match for all patients with
blood cancer or a blood-related illness.”
In addition to providing audiences with
traditional Chinese foods and performances, the festival
hosts over 120 dragon boat teams from across North
America, making it one of the largest dragon boat
festivals in the United States.
In addition to sponsoring one of the
boating teams, DKMS will also host a registration table
at the event, where race participants and festival
attendees can swab their cheeks to register as potential
bone marrow donors and learn more about the simple steps
to save someone’s life.
Unrelated donors are needed for
transplants in 70% of the cases of patients suffering
from blood cancers or blood disorders. A simple cheek
swab is all it takes to register as a potential donor.
For more information on DKMS, to register
or to fund the mission,
please visit www.dkms.org
About DKMS
DKMS is
an international nonprofit organization dedicated to
eradicating blood cancers like leukemia and other
blood-related illnesses inspiring both men and women
around the world to register as bone marrow and blood
stem cell donors. DKMS is providing patients with a
second chance at life, working closely with families
from diagnosis to transplant and beyond. The donor
journey begins with a swab of the cheek that takes less
than 60 seconds and can be the action that leads to a
lifesaving transplant. DKMS, originally founded in
Germany in 1991 by Dr. Peter Harf, has organizations in
Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The U.S. office was started in 2004. Globally, DKMS has
registered more than 7.4 million people. To join the
fight against blood cancer or for more information,
please go to www.dkms.org
.