V 8 N. 65 Earl Young, Alive and Swabbing

A few years ago while researching names and contacts of former 1960 Olympians, somebody gave me Earl Young's address and said I better contact him quickly, because he had an acute form of blood cancer and was on his way to cashing in his chips.  Most of you may recall Earl's being on the winning 4x400 team at Rome and his years at the top with Abilene Christian University.  Over some time I finally did get in touch with Earl to learn that he wasn't about to die of his cancer.  He had received a bone marrow transplant from a donor in Germany.   The donor living in Germany had  a genetic  connection  with DNA similar to Earl's.  He  received the transplant and  has since recovered from his illness.   

Earl is not a person to forget a good turn and has for the last four years been running his own program to encourage people,  especially those in the age range of about 18-40 years,  to permit a mouth swabbing be made and put on a potential donors list.  Donors need to fall in this age group to increase odds of success.  In the life of the program's existence, 34 donors have been found.  Finding a match is a needle in the haystack operation.   Not many people are listed as having DNA that will match a recipient in need.  This may not sound like a huge number, but we're still talking about 34 people walking on the planet who might remember that someone helped them in a time of need and in turn be a good Samaritan for others.  It took 11,000 people on the list to find matches for those 34, giving you an idea of the odds someone is facing when diagnosed.     Congratualtions to Earl and all those courageous people who have provided the mouth swab DNA test to be on the list.  And huge congrats to those 34 who actually were called and gave.  You can reduce those odds by doing the swabbing test and getting on the list.  Unfortunately most of our readers are a bit too old to do this, but they could pass this link on to their children and grandchildren.

Earl Young's Team  Clik Here to Learn More About Earl's Team.

When Earl Met His Donor