Abenaki Tribe Needs Help Finding Bone Marrow Matches

East Montpelier, Vermont - January 2, 2008

An Abenaki man hopes someone in his tribe can help save a woman's life. She is in need of a bone marrow transplant, but her Abenaki heritage has made it hard to find a match in the national registry.

"I just immediately felt I had to help," Todd Hebert said.

Nicole Nelson has aplastic anemia. The 34-year-old wife and mother needs a bone marrow transplant to survive, but she hasn't found a match in the national registry of donors.

Hebert has never met her, but knows the best matches typically share an ethnic heritage.

"These are the people she needs," he said.

The National Marrow Donor Program says that on any given day, 6,000 people are looking for the match that could save their lives. It's difficult for everyone to find a match, but minorities, especially, are under-represented in the registry. And 81 percent of Native Americans don't get the transplants they need because there aren't enough Native American donors in the registry. A spokesman said that of the 6 million people in its registry, fewer than 100,000 have Native American heritage. Ironically, Nelson did not know about her Abenaki heritage until the lack of potential matches in the database prompted some research into her family history.

"I can just imagine what they're going through," Hebert said. "They have a young child. It's got to be tough, knowing the chance of getting a match is very slim. People need to come out. They need to help her."

So Hebert is hoping to increase her odds by increasing the number of Abenaki in the national database. He has organized two bone marrow drives this weekend, targeting the estimated 5,000 members of Vermont's Abenaki community.

"Myself being Abenaki, I immediately wanted to do something because there's very few of us around," he said. "I just feel that the few that there are need to be in that registry. There are other people like Nicole that are going to be in the same dilemma. I think all Native Americans should step forward to help their people."

And while the target here is the Abenaki, everyone is encouraged to join the registry. It's a numbers game, and the more people in the registry, the greater the odds that people in need will find a life-saving match.

The bone marrow drives will be held from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 5, from at the Abenaki Tribal Headquarters on Grand Avenue in Swanton; and Sunday, Jan. 6, at the East Montpelier Sugar House on Route 2.

To register, individuals must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and in good health. The procedure uses a sterile swab to remove cells from the inside of the cheek. For information, call 1-800-283-8385, extension 720.

Kate Duffy - WCAX News

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7570307