[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E101-E102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  RECOGNIZING THE NATIONAL BONE MARROW DONOR PROGRAM'S BLACK HISTORY 
                             MONTH CAMPAIGN

                                 ______


                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 25, 1996

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Bertelsmann 
Music Group and the National Bone Marrow Donor Program's The Choice is 
Yours, month-long campaign. Bertelsmann Music Group designed this 
campaign to highlight the importance of choice and responsibility among 
African-American businesses and communities. This campaign will focus 
on the civil participation of African-Americans the recruitment of 
potential donors among African-Americans for nationwide bone marrow 
donorship and increased voter registration.
  Life threatening diseases such as leukemia and aplastic anemia are 
nondiscriminatory diseases. They occur at similar rates among members 
of all races and ethnic heritage. If a patient is diagnosed with one of 
these life threatening diseases requiring a bone marrow transplant in 
order to survive, the first place to find an identical human leukocyte 
antigen matched bone marrow donor is among the patient's siblings. If 
no match is found among the patient's brothers and sisters, a donor 
unrelated to the patient must be found. Due to the uniqueness of 
antigen types and the rare occurrence for exact matches between bone 
marrow patients and donors, the first place to find a matched unrelated 
donor is from within the patient's own racial or ethnic group.
  The National Bone Marrow Donor Program is vigorously engaged in an 
unprecedented 11-State and 15-city campaign tour to expand the pool of 
eligible unrelated bone marrow donors of minority heritage in order to 
improve the chances of minority patients finding matching unrelated 
donors. At this late date, African-Americans currently have a 34 
percent chance of finding a matched unrelated donor on the National 
Bone Marrow Registry, while Caucasians have a 71 percent chance of 
finding a matched unrelated donor. The only way to equalize the chances 
of finding unrelated matched bone marrow donors for patients of 
minority backgrounds is for more minority donors to volunteer to join 
the National Bone Marrow Registry.
  The Choice is Yours campaign will offer potential African-American 
and other donors the 

[[Page E102]]
opportunity to join the National Bone Marrow Registry at various retail 
outlets across the country. This project will also feature voter 
registration, providing a user friendly environment for young people to 
become both registered voters and potential bone marrow donors.
  The Choice is Yours campaign exemplifies what can be accomplished 
when the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, combine their resources to 
promote civic responsibility. Most importantly, programs of this nature 
help save lives. The Choice is Yours campaign demonstrates the 
commitment by the Bertelsmann Music Group and the National Bone Marrow 
Donor Program, to provide leadership and heighten awareness on these 
important issues that strongly impact the African-American community.
  I am very pleased to recognize this campaign that will be inaugurated 
at the world's famous Apollo Theater in my district, the 15th 
Congressional District in the State of New York on February 1, 1996.

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