- DKMS Americas
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DKMS Americas 
Type Non-profit Industry Health Care Headquarters New York, NY, USA Key people Katharina Harf, Peter Harf Employees 30 (November 2009) Website www.dkmsamericas.org DKMS Americas is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 and based in New York, NY that recruits volunteer bone marrow donors of all races and ethnicities to help leukemia patients in need of a bone marrow transplant.[1][2][3] DKMS Americas was co-founded by Katharina Harf and her father Peter Harf. It is the US offshoot of DKMS (Germany), formed to help leukemia patients in need of bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants.
Contents
What DKMS Does
DKMS Americas is a national bone marrow donor center, which works to expand the bone marrow donor registry by recruiting bone marrow donors. DKMS works closely with the Be The Match Registry (operated by the NMDP) http://www.marrow.org) The main operation of DKMS Americas is to organize donor drives to raise awareness and recruit potential bone marrow donors to be placed on the registry. DKMS also coordinates the transport of bone marrow and blood stem cells from Germany to the U.S. for patients here in need of bone marrow transplants.
In addition to recruiting bone marrow donors, DKMS also coordinates the transport of bone marrow and blood stem cells from Germany to the U.S. for patients here in need of bone marrow transplants.
DKMS Americas began recruiting donors in 2006 and since then has registered more than 130,000 donors, and over 155 DKMS (Americas) donors have gone on to donate their bone marrow.
History
In 1990, Peter Harf’s wife Mechtild, was battling acute leukemia. At the time, the registry had only 3,000 registered donors so he mobilized thousands of people to themselves register, and to help recruit other donors. Peter’s wife ultimately lost her battle, but in 1991 he and his wife's physician, Professor Gerhard Ehninger, co-founded DKMS in Germany. Peter and his daughter Katharina co-founded DKMS Americas, the American arm, in 1994.
As of January 2010, DKMS (Germany and U.S. combined) has registered over 2,000,000 donors worldwide, and facilitated more than 20,000 transplants, making it the world's largest bone marrow donor center. DKMS and DKMS Americas donors make up more than 15% of registered donors worldwide, and 29% of Be The Match registered donors. Throughout the world, there are more than 14 million bone marrow donors registered. DKMS Americas has registered more than 130,000 donors, and over 170 DKMS Americas donors have gone on to donate their bone marrow.
DKMS Americas was founded in 2004 as the American offshoot of DKMS.
The Need for Donors
Each year, thousands of patients are diagnosed with leukemia, blood cancers, or other fatal autoimmune diseases. Many can be cured with a bone marrow transplant but this is difficult because the donor and patient must match in at least 8 tissue characteristics (HLA characteristics). Such matches are extremely rare, since there are more than 3,600 known characteristics, and these can occur in millions of combinations. Less than 30% of patients find a suitable donor match within their family. The remaining 70% depend on unrelated individuals. The odds that two randomly selected individuals are HLA matched exceed one in 20,000, therefore the larger the pool of donors, the greater the chance a patient can find a suitable donor match.
Finances
DKMS is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. DKMS does not receive funding from the government and therefore relies on the generosity of the general public to help finance the $65 cost to register each new life-saving bone marrow donor. The major portion of this cost (to DKMS) is due to laboratory testing, and the remaining amount covers supplies and informational materials for the testing.
International Networks
DKMS is part of a life-saving network of organizations, including the Be The Match Registry, operated by the National Bone Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) - (DKMS is an accredited bone marrow donor center with the Be the Match Registry) and the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), which helps to bring together donors and patients, regardless of location.
See also
National Cancer Institute http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/bone-marrow-transplant
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=12486External links
References
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/nyregion/28about.html
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19about.html
- ^ http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=justgive&npoId=100724938
www.savegiovannisfriends.org www.helpgiovanniguglielmo.org
- http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/farmingville-girl-with-leukemia-needs-marrow-transplant-1.1624401
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/nyregion/28about.html?_r=2
- http://www.hauteliving.com/celebrity-city-guide/?id=142
- http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20342432,00.html
- http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/01/29/2010-01-29_gives_2nd_chance_to_leukemia_patients.html
- http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jo7rYsYgujzTBRw2Kis69OoRoE8QD9DMQIMG0
- http://www.lvrj.com/news/fulgencio-garcia-among-thousands-who-need-bone-marrow-donors-82877467.html
- http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/29/father-desparately-seeking-donor-life-saving-bone-/
- http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/sweet_sweet_charity_XwZUPneJzTzH1RRMiALB4O
- http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/helping_hand_JgHrqSNMJehFwgogZZtXUK
Categories:- Non-profit organizations based in the United States
- Transplant organisations
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