Insight News  Mar 09th  It hurts and five other myths about bone
marrow donation and registration  E-mail Print PDF  1.  Myth: If
you sign up as a potential donor, you're going to be poked with
a needle.  Not true.  A simple cheek swab is all that’s needed
to check your tissue typing so you can be entered into the bone
marrow registry.  Because they fear the needle, untold numbers
of people avoid the registration process entirely because they
don’t want to get stuck.  If you make the first cut and turn up
as a potential match for a particular patient, then you will
have some blood work done later on that requires a needle.  At
that point, though, many potential donors are emotionally
invested in the process (especially since, now, there's a
specific person in need involved) and will do just about
anything to help save a life.  2. Myth: You can only be a match
for someone in your family.  False.  Most bone marrow matches
come from strangers.  The chance of your matching a brother or
sister is only twenty-five