[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 96 (Thursday, June 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1290-E1291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING PATRICIA A. COPPO FOR 20 YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE TO THE 
                     NATIONAL MARROW DONOR PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 14, 2007

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, after 20 years of dedicated 
service, Patricia A. Coppo is retiring from her life-saving work with 
the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). As you know, the NMDP allows 
medical miracles to occur every day as the program recruits adult 
donors and umbilical cord blood units to provide stem cell 
transplantations for patients with life-threatening blood disorders.
  Pat, who retires as the Chief Operating Officer of the NMDP, has been 
with the program since its inception. With a small earmarked 
appropriation from the United States Navy, the NMDP began in 1987 with 
four staff members in a cramped room in a Red Cross office in St. Paul, 
Minnesota. They had a vision and a mission and with the support and 
guidance of Congress and the Navy began their work to save lives one at 
a time.
  Pat started as a bone marrow search coordinator and worked with 
transplant centers to try to find donors for their patients from 
several donor registries that had developed through the work of 
patients and their families, blood centers and transplant hospitals. It 
was almost a needle in a haystack approach to saving lives. With the 
guidance and support of my colleagues and I on the Appropriations 
Committee and in this House, these individual registries came together 
to form the beginnings of the NMDP. No one then could have conceived of 
the program that has developed since. As of April of 2007, over 6.5 
million donors have joined the Registry and over 28,000 patients have 
received a second chance at life through bone marrow, stem cell or cord 
blood transplantation.
  Madam Speaker, over these past 20 years, Pat has helped the NMDP save 
lives through cellular transplantation therapy by providing guidance 
for the organization, leadership for the staff and stewardship of the 
NMDP's resources. She has made a profound impact on the organization 
and staff with her passion for our mission, dedication to the staff, 
incredible work ethic, sense of humor and ability to adapt, change and 
grow with the NMDP. She will leave a legacy of important and lasting 
relationships with a network of over 450 organizations that partner to 
provide cellular transplant therapies.
  The NMDP will miss her but she leaves the program in a great position 
to continue its life-saving work. As a result of legislation adopted

[[Page E1291]]

by Congress in December 2005, the NMDP has been entrusted to operate 
the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program. The size of the 
registry will increase, the science of transplantation will advance, 
and we will continue to develop more services to support patients and 
families as they cope with a life-threatening disease.
  Madam Speaker, I would urge my colleagues to join me in thanking Pat 
for her dedication to the program and the patients we serve. She has 
made a difference in the lives of thousands of patients and families 
and for that, they and we will be forever grateful. In closing let me 
wish Pat all the best as she closes one very long and important chapter 
in her life and embarks upon a new and yet unchartered journey.

                          ____________________