A call for bone marrow donors

Here's a confession: I can rarely make it through an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition without tearing up. Occasionally I'll make it nearly to the end, but the part where the family with the renovated house thanks all the hundreds of community members who made it happen always gets me.

I didn't make it nearly that far during the Lizzie Bell episode. That one had me bawling like a baby from, oh about minute 22 throughout the rest of the hour. That one I had something of a personal stake in.

Lizzie lives in Arizona, and we've never met, but we're related. We're second cousins, or second cousins once removed or something like that. Bottom line, my mom and her dad come from the same family.

Lizzie's got a condition called Diamond Blackfan Anemia that over the years has had in and out of the hospital and needing regular blood transfusions. Having spent some time in hospitals myself, I felt a kinship with her. But where I was generally laser-focused on myself during my illness, hers has spurred her to focus on others. For years now she's been organizing blood drives and collecting toys to hand out to other hospitalized kids (Lizzie's Loot).

That's what got her and the family on Extreme Makeover, so that I could have a good cry.

Lizzie's about to turn 18, and she needs a bone marrow transplant. Thus far, she's had no luck finding a matching donor. Her mom is Latino, which complicates things because all ethnic minorities are underrepresented on the U.S. bone marrow registry.

We need more people on that registry. More people of all races. So if you haven't yet registered your DNA, please consider doing so. All you have to do is swab your inner cheek and then put that little piece of cotton in the mail. Science does the rest, I guess. Biology's never been my strong suit.