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Monday, September 24th

Good morning!

Many of you have been wondering how you can go about getting tested to see if you could help Otto in the area of bone marrow donations.  We thank you so much for your willingness to help!  We appreciate your interest in learning how to get this done.

If you would like to get swabbed and join the registry, I encourage you to go to the Be the Match website (www.bethematch.org).  This cheek swab takes literally 1 minute and 30 secs to complete.  Isn't that a crazy thought?  Just by rubbing your inner cheeks with the given Q-tips, you could potentially save a life!

People who would like to pursue this journey will need to understand that their results cannot be directed to Otto.  Instead, your swab will be available to anyone on the national registry.  Does this include Otto?  Technically it does.  However, our team here at Yale has already collected a pool of candidates who could potentially be a 100% match.  So, by the time you get your kits, send them back and are evaluated, we may have a potential donor lined up (or at least we are praying that we will have one!)

Thank you to all who are considering getting swabbed.  Please know that although you may not directly be helping Otto, you may be able to help another person in this world.

We know that there are some hopeful candidates out there that Yale is looking at.  We are praying that one of these individuals are a healthy and willing match.

With so much love and gratitude!

Mark, Leigh, Otto, Tess and Lulu

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