Will You Be The One To Cure Sonia?

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This post has little to do with photography – tips or tutorials. It has everything to do about stepping up and helping a complete stranger because their life depends on it. And, yes, you … YOU … can do something about it … NOW!

A couple of days back I received the following letter from Shilpa Nanduri:

I am writing to you because a friend of mine, Sonia Rai, who is just 24 years old, was just diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) and is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant.

I am requesting you to please help spread the word about Sonia and her family's effort to save her life.

They are currently organizing many bone marrow drives over the next few weeks in several cities. Visit www.curesonia.org for more information. Please keep checking back, because more cities will be added.

“Team Sonia – Sonia’s brother Sumit Rai, family and friends are organizing drives today and in the next few weeks. Please take the time to help spread the word about the drives and join the National Marrow Donor Program registry if you have not already done so.”

From Sepia Mutiny:

“As you may be aware from our previous posts on the topic, the National Bone Marrow Registry (NMDP) is in dire need of more ethnic donors. South Asians, as well as any minority, and especially people of mixed ethnicity are needed. Sonia is currently receiving excellent care at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, but in order to survive beyond the next few months, she requires a bone marrow transplant. Most matches occur within ethnicity and increasing the number of South Asians registered as potential bone marrow donors will help Sonia as well as many others who are searching.”

Please direct people to www.curesonia.org to find out how they can help. They can help by attending a drive and thus registering with the National Bone Marrow Donor program and / or by hosting their own drives (which is much easier than you would think, all the necessary support will be provided).

All new registrants added to the national registry might help not only Sonia, but also many others searching for a bone marrow match.

So, as we start the New Year today, allow me to ask you: Will you be the one to step up and register? Will you be the one to save Sonia's life or for that matter anyone else's life?

As you embrace the New Year, I also ask that you embrace this cause. This isn't the first time I am asking you to do so. Back in 2007, I appealed to you to help my cousin Vinay Chakravarthy. His friends and family rallied to have more than 50,000 people register. Yet, we are still short on finding matches for people like Sonia.

If you are the type to make every day count, shouldn't you jump in an register yourself with the National Bone Marrow Program registry today? Please remember that people's lives depend on it. Maybe even yours.

Welcome to a day filled with one's. It's 1/1/11. A very Happy New Year to you all.