ACROSS THE MILES

FRIENDS WE NEED YOUR HELP
A fellow blogger Shankari http://shankari-rajesh.blogspot.com has requested me to post this .If anyone else would like to post this on your blog please do.Public awareness may bring some help. Perhaps it is you who is destined to save a life.

Dear Friends, we request your help. Nirali Naik of Chicago, IL a sweet and wonderful 18 month
old girl - and the daughter of dear friends of ours is suffering from Leukemia. Please seehttp://www.savenirali.com

All of us well wishers of Nirali are trying to find a matching bone marrow donor for her. We are doing this by organizing numerous bone marrow drives around the country. SAMAR (South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters) is helping us do this.More info on SAMAR -http://www.samarinfo.org


We urge you to please come to the drives that are located near you - (they are listed in Nirali's website) and register for bone marrow donation to see if you can save her life. Because Nirali's race is Indian, the likelihood of finding a matching donor is highest among Indians. As you can see from the SAMAR home page, there are many patients of Indian origin who are waiting for a Bone marrow donor - this is a chance for us to potentially help out many others as well.At a bone marrow drive, potential donors are asked to fill in aform and the test for marrow match is very simple - most likely an oral swab (or a blood sample). It is absolutely FREE for minority races. The samples are then tested for a particular series of Antigens (called Human Leukocyte Antigens) and the information is stored in a national database maintained by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

If the donors are potential matches with patients (including Nirali), the NMDP will contact them directly. Bone marrow donation has no long term side effect at all.Please forward this email to Individuals/Organisations of Indian race who might be interested in helping.Feel free to contact us - Hiral & Anurag (hirald@hotmail.com) or SAMAR directly for any questions.

If there is no drive located in your area and you would like to help in arranging one, SAMAR will provide all the resources free of cost and thiswould be a huge help.Thank you very much for your help in our efforts to save Nirali.Sincerely,Hiral DesaiPosted on August 23, 2006, at 12:20 AM by Rakesh Mahajan

We have organized a drive on Sunday 27th Aug 2006 in San Ramon, CA from Noon - 4: 00 pm . The organizer from LTI are Sadanand Krishnan and myself. Address CABANA Club house , Country Brook Apartments 12355 Alcosta Boulevard San Ramon , CA 94583 We have spoken to AADP and organized for the sample collection and also the logistics is in place.

We will be sending out an appeal to larger audience outside LTI community to tap Chevron Indian population, other IT companies and also thru temple and India Grocery. That is the bear minimum we can do to help Nirali. Hope to have a great drive to help the cause. Thanks Rakesh Mahajan, PMP,CSCP Certified SAP Consultant and PMI Project Manager Certified Supply Chain Professional LTI-Center of Excellence Manager(Chevron ADM) USA Internet: rakesh.mahajan@Lntinfotech.com (732) 925 0327(Cell) (925) 680 3080(Concord)