Hillel's mission is "enriching the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world."
Hillel and Gift of Life Marrow Registry are partners hoping to live out the Jewish tradition of "Tikkun Olam." The saying is that he who saves a single life, saves the world entire.
When Gift of Life’s Founder and Executive Director, Jay, was searching for his match, he was told by his doctors that he would need to find a donor who had a similar ethnic background in order to have a chance at survival. However, the worldwide donor registry was severely low on Ashkenazi Jews, Jay’s own ethnicity. His family and friends didn’t want to see him die needlessly, so they launched an ambitious grassroots donor recruitment campaign, resulting in the enrollment of tens of thousands of new donors in the worldwide bone marrow registry.
Feeling that no one should have to search for four years to find a donor, Jay and his family dedicated their lives to a new mission: ensure that every patient in need of a transplant is able to find a matching donor when one is needed.
One single act of kindness by Jay’s donor has now saved the lives of thousands of patients, and given hope to their families and their communities. You, too, carry that power to save a life within you. Please join our mission and help us change the world.
Additional Information:
About marrow donor registries
Because only 30 percent of patients needing a transplant find a match among family members, 70 percent of patients must rely on volunteer bone marrow and blood stem cell donors who have joined one of the worldwide donor registries. Gift of Life is one of two public registries in the United States, and is a member of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA).
Age matters!
While anyone between 18 and 60 can join the registry, the most frequently requested donors are young and male. Young people produce more stem cells, and due to their larger physical size, men produce more stem cells. The most requested donor group is 18 to 35, yet all donors can remain in the registry until their 61st birthday, and plenty of donors are called from the 36 to 60 group!
How to use your swab kit
Your kit will arrive in the mail within five business days. Each kit contains four sterile cotton swabs, two for each side of your mouth. The kit will also have a postage paid return envelope – which may be folded up. Do not discard the return envelope.
Each kit has instructions printed on the inside:
- Complete all the information on the swab kit’s upper flap. Please print legibly.
- Open the swabs, being careful not to touch the cotton to any surface other than your inner cheek. You may want to open one packet at a time. Only you should touch the swabs to prevent contamination.
- Swallow before swabbing! This is not a saliva test.
- Use each of the swabs in a different quadrant of your cheek, as shown in the diagram printed on the kit.
- Brush the swab against the inside of your cheek in a circular motion for approximately ten seconds.
- Drop the first swab inside the envelope and go to the next one, until all four are completed.
- Once the four swabs are inside the envelope, peel the adhesive strip and seal the envelope to prevent contamination.
- Do not remove the perforated section of the flap. Please double-check your information for completeness and legibility. Your telephone number and email address are essential for contacting you if you are a match.
- Place the entire kit inside the postage paid return envelope. If you have misplaced the envelope, please call our office to have a new, postage paid return envelope sent to you. Or, you can place your kit inside an envelope and mail it to our office at 5901 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Boca Raton, FL 33487.
For other Frequently Asked Questions and more information about joining the registry and the donation process please visit:
