About Us
A Bone Marrow Wish is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness, education, and participation in bone marrow and blood stem cell donation. The organization works to ensure that patients battling leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell disease, and other life-threatening blood disorders have a greater chance of finding a matching donor. Through its mission of hope, service, and education, A Bone Marrow Wish empowers individuals to become potential lifesavers and helps connect patients with the second chance they desperately need.
YOU have the Power to save a Life
The Founder
John Frierson, Bone Marrow Donor
"I joined the registry to hopefully help a firefighter, but I saved the life of a 2-year old boy, just like I would hope someone would do for my own son."
The founder of A Bone Marrow Wish, John Frierson, a bone marrow donor, exemplifies the life-changing impact of bone marrow donation. Pictured at a graduation just four hours after donating his bone marrow, demonstrating that donation is a safe and manageable process for most donors. Through his personal example and commitment, John inspires others to join the registry and become a potential lifesaving match for patients in need.
In 2002, John Frierson attended a bone marrow donor registration drive at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit, Michigan. Motivated by the opportunity to help someone in need, he joined the national donor registry without knowing that his decision would soon change a life forever. Just six months later, John received the call that he was a perfect bone marrow match for a two-year-old boy from Ruleville, Mississippi who was battling a life-threatening illness. His donation provided hope for a child and family facing unimaginable challenges and opened his eyes to the critical need for more registered donors, particularly within the African American community.
Inspired by this life-changing experience, John founded A Bone Marrow Wish in 2003 to raise awareness and educate communities about the lifesaving power of bone marrow and blood stem cell donation. Bone marrow transplants can treat and cure more than 75 diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell disease, severe aplastic anemia, and other blood disorders. Unfortunately, African American patients face some of the greatest challenges in finding a matching donor because tissue types are inherited and the donor registry lacks sufficient diversity. While approximately 75% of patients do not have a matching donor within their own family and must rely on the national registry, Black and African American patients have only about a 29% chance of finding a fully matched unrelated donor. Through education, outreach, and donor registration efforts, A Bone Marrow Wish continues its mission to increase donor participation and bring hope to patients and families searching for their lifesaving match.
John Frierson was so deeply committed to raising awareness about the critical need for African American bone marrow donors that he successfully lobbied Congress to recognize the cause on a national level. His efforts culminated in the passage of a congressional resolution in June 2009 establishing July as African American Bone Marrow Awareness Month. Since then A Bone Marrow Wish has educated and recruited thousands to the registry.
Congressional Resolution for African American Bone Marrow Awareness Month
They Need Your Help!
The Match They Are Waiting For Could Be You