As social media evolves, it’s interesting to see the ways in which people are using it. It used to be that you simply were able to reconnect with old friends on a site such as Myspace, and now, people are using Facebook to break world news and even potentially save a life, like Amit Gupta is hoping.
Amit was recently diagnosed with leukemia and he will eventually need a crucial bone marrow transplant to replenish the cells that his chemotherapy treatment will kill.
Unfortunately, Amit does not have any donors who are a match just yet. His South Indian descent makes things harder as well, because South Asians, including those of Indian descent, make up only 1% of donors in the National Bone Marrow Registry.
To help find that potentially life-saving donor, Amit enlisted the help of his friends. They began sending out tweets and Facebook posts to encourage people to see if they were a match. Seth Godin, Amit’s mentor, took it a step further by offering $10,000 to the first certified match for Amit through his blog. With money raised from his friends, that number is now around $30,000.
It’s important to note that the test to see if you’re a match is nothing more than requesting a kit from Marrow.Org, swabbing your cheek with a q-tip, and sending your kit back in.
Currently, a match for Amit has yet to be found, but it is an exciting testament to the power of social media that so many people are already getting involved. With all the resharing and retweeting going on, a match for Amit is much closer than it might ever have been before.
Want to join in? Send out a tweet about Amit and be sure to use this hashtag: #IswabbedforAmit
Request a kit to see if you’re a match for Amit or someone else at Marrow.Org
Amit Gupta (Source)