Cory, it's nice to see this post here. I work for the National Marrow Donor Program, and was the lead developer for the online registration site you'd use to join. Tamu, I hope your brother can find a match soon - I know it's hard to wait. While I'm here, maybe I can clear up a couple of things.

As Tamu mentioned, minority groups have the hardest time finding a match. While we do typically charge for joining the NMDP's registry, we are focused on minority recruitment, and minority volunteers are usually able to join for free or at a reduced cost. For the Thanks Mom drive, we've waved the recruitment fee for anyone that would like to join.

The $52.00 that you would normally pay goes towards the tissue typing we do on all of our newly recruited donors. This allows us to help patients search our pool of donors so that they can find a potential match. Other typing costs and any transplant-related expenses are paid for by the patient.

As far as confidentiality goes, we have strict guidelines that prohibit anyone from using any samples for any other purposes other than helping a patient find a match.

Please tell a friend. It's quick and painless to join, and you could be the person that saves someone's life. I've been waiting for the call.