*VERY IMPORTANT !*Help Save a Life: Register to Become a Bone-Marrow Donor.10-year-old L.J. Jones

Preserve Our Legacy, an organization that raises awareness about the need for minority donors, is working to get 25,000 new donors on the marrow registry in hopes that one of them will be a match for 10-year-old L.J. Jones, who has a rare form of leukemia, and save his life. Visit www.preserveourlegacy.org  to find out what you can do to help L.J. or someone else in need of a bone-marrow transplant.

L.J. Jones (Image: Courtesy of Brett Melius)

When BET.com first introduced you to L.J. last year, he was notable not because he had a record-breaking song or popular video, but for the sad reality that he suffers from a rare, progressively fatal blood disease called hypereosinophilic syndrome, characterized by overproduction of white blood cells, which damages internal organs and issues.
BET.com readers and viewers of 106 & Park have an opportunity to make a direct impact on L.J.’s life—and the lives of many more who wait for marrow transplants—by registering to become a donor. If you are in good health and over the age of 18, then you’re eligible to be a marrow donor.
L.J. appeared on a special episode of 106 & Park this week, and hosts Terrence and Rosci took the bone marrow compatibility test live on the air.

L.J.'s background—mixed African-American, Latino, and Native American ancestry—makes his case particularly daunting. The complicated genetic makeup of patients with Black and Latino mixed ancestry makes finding marrow matches more difficult than it is for white patients. The odds of finding a match are even more slim because, with very few Blacks signed up to be donors, the pool of potential matches is low. Currently, 83 percent of African-Americans who need transplants never find a match after six months of searching.

The rate of African American and multi-ethnic individuals signing up to be donors is extremely low.

With a mixed ancestry (African American, Latino, and Native American), LJ’s case is particularly daunting. He’s been through numerous rounds of chemotherapy, but it’s going to take a bone marrow transplant to save his life.

106 & PARK viewers have the potential to make a direct impact on LJ's life, and the lives of many more in need of bone marrow transplants.  The aim, alongside Preserve Our Legacy is to get 25,000 new donors on the marrow registry, in the hopes that one of them will be a match for LJ, and save his life.  Anyone in good health over the age of 18 is eligible to become a donor. Help us spread the word and possibly save LJ’s life.

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