Robin Roberts

This week we had many phone calls and emails asking whether we had heard that Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, a breast cancer survivor, now has MDS.  When Jeff and I first heard the news, we wondered whether her announcement would encourage minorities to register with the National Marrow Donor Program.  We knew there was a great need for minorities on the registry.

When we heard that Robin’s sister was a match we hoped she would still put out a request for people, particularly minorities, to register.  And she did!  A friend at work told me she’d heard that the NMDP website was overwhelmed with requests for swab kits!  She sheepishly admitted that she still has not registered although I told her of the need for minority donors.  (Get busy, girl!)

When Jeff was diagnosed, he was told there would be no problem for a man of European descent to find a match.  Those words made our hearts sink for those who would not hear the same message.  Ethnicity matters in finding a match.  Sex and blood type do not.  Thus, Jeff’s XX blood and marrow. 

Jeff quipped that since Robin Roberts’ secondary cancer is MDS, maybe his would be breast cancer.  Oh, please…