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DKMS was founded 27 years ago in Germany by Dr. Peter Harf when he lost his wife Mechtild to leukemia. Peter promised her that he would help every blood cancer patient find a matching donor. At that time, there were only 3,000 potential stem cell donors available to provide a transplant in Germany and within one year of founding DKMS, the number of stem cell donors increased to 68,000.
DKMS is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders by: creating awareness; recruiting bone marrow donors to provide a second chance at life; raising funds to match donor registration costs; supporting the improvement of therapies through research; and supporting patients from day one of their diagnoses. Today, DKMS has offices in Germany, the United States (opened 2004), Poland (2009), and the UK (2013) and has registered over 8 million potential donors worldwide. DKMS has over 600 staff members from 20 countries dedicated to helping give every blood cancer patient a second chance at life. DKMS is driven by innovation and invests in our people's ideas in order to be the premier provider of assistance to blood cancer patients throughout the world. |
DKms: Videos that inspire |
Hilllsboro Farmer's Market Donor driveOur first Donor Drive we were able to get 19 people swabbed and ready to be put on the national donor registry.
Our second drive we were able to get 21 people on the national registry. We still have a long way to go, but every swab is a potential match. So far that is 30 people that may be called to save a life. I definitely found a lot of pride in what I do, and joy in knowing that I'm helping make these connections between the donor and patient happen. |
My work
In the beginning I really didn’t know what I was going to do or what working with DKMS looked like. I just knew it was an awesome cause and something I wanted to be a part of. I was surprised to learn that I would be the one to decide what to do and make it happen. It was scary and at times overwhelming to know what my end goal was, but not much else. The hardest part was figuring out where to start, but once I did the path just sort of laid itself out for me brick by brick.
What I did was organize Donor Drives at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market. Part of this was recruiting and training my drive volunteers, so I turned to my friends and family. This was an aspect about this whole process that I really enjoyed. I was able to share this experience with the people that I love. Part of the drive supply kit you get a bunch of capes which are really fun and a good way to break the ice with people. Obviously my nine year old loved this and he was able to be out there with me at every drive flying around. He also took a pretty big interest in DKMS and watched videos with me and understood why we were out there, which I just couldn’t be happier to share this experience and the importance of helping others with him.
I knew that all I had to do to get my friends into volunteering at my drives was share with them what DKMS was all about. So I had a dinner were we watched all the DKMS videos and stories I could find and within no time they were all tearing up and signing up for shifts at my drives. What was also really cool about this dinner was that after all this everyone was really excited to be involved. We all started brainstorming what we wanted our drive to look like and what we could bring to the table. At this point it really became our drive not my drive, which is super cool.
During my first drive I was also approached by two other market and festival organizers who want to team up to connect their causes with DKMS. The first was a skin care and cancer awareness festival, and the second was a mind, body, and soul festival. They both said that what we were doing fit right in with what they were doing. So I’m excited to see all the places still to go with DKMS.
What I did was organize Donor Drives at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market. Part of this was recruiting and training my drive volunteers, so I turned to my friends and family. This was an aspect about this whole process that I really enjoyed. I was able to share this experience with the people that I love. Part of the drive supply kit you get a bunch of capes which are really fun and a good way to break the ice with people. Obviously my nine year old loved this and he was able to be out there with me at every drive flying around. He also took a pretty big interest in DKMS and watched videos with me and understood why we were out there, which I just couldn’t be happier to share this experience and the importance of helping others with him.
I knew that all I had to do to get my friends into volunteering at my drives was share with them what DKMS was all about. So I had a dinner were we watched all the DKMS videos and stories I could find and within no time they were all tearing up and signing up for shifts at my drives. What was also really cool about this dinner was that after all this everyone was really excited to be involved. We all started brainstorming what we wanted our drive to look like and what we could bring to the table. At this point it really became our drive not my drive, which is super cool.
During my first drive I was also approached by two other market and festival organizers who want to team up to connect their causes with DKMS. The first was a skin care and cancer awareness festival, and the second was a mind, body, and soul festival. They both said that what we were doing fit right in with what they were doing. So I’m excited to see all the places still to go with DKMS.
My reflection
I have truly enjoyed working with DKMS and having the experience of going out in my community to spread awareness and get people put on the national donor registry. I really feel like from here I can go anywhere within DKMS, and really until blood cancer is deleted and nobody is dying only because they can’t find a donor there will always be more to do. One really cool benefit of doing the donor drives was making so many connections with different people who want to team up to do their own drives. I exchanged contact info with a number of people who want to connect their cause with DKMS. There were also so many people who were interested in doing donor drives at their work. So not only were we able to get a lot of people swabbed and put on the registry, but we also made a lot of connections to keep spreading our cause and moving forward.
I definitely wish to continue effecting change. This has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a student. In working with and learning from DKMS along with the course text Walk Out Walk On I have discovered that real change and progress can come from anywhere and go everywhere. It is so easy (especially in today’s climate) to feel overwhelmed by the wrongs in the world, and not really feeling like you’re capable of making any real changes. This class has taught me the importance of just getting out there and trying. Your starting point may start out tiny and feel insignificant, but I believe that good intentions and ideas are infectious. I now see how easily an idea can become a movement, and that movement could be real progress.
I love being a part of a greater good and cause that really matters. On a personal level I feel like I have gained so much from this too. Putting together my own donor drives was so empowering, to have this idea and see it brought to life and blowing my expectations out of the water. I couldn’t be happier with my crew of awesome helpers and my community of people who just really stepped up. I have a lot of pride in what I was able to accomplish and I just feel pure joy for being a part of such a great cause. So there is also a big part of me that wants to continue my work, because it just makes me feel so good.
Basically what that looks like for me is just putting together more drives and making more of those connections. One thing I have done in this process that will help keep me motivated is getting my friends and family involved. DKMS is now a big part of our bond and a cause we all share. In fact one of my friends just dedicated her birthday to DKMS on Facebook, and asked for friends to donate to them for her birthday wish, which is incredible. We all feel really passionate and empowered by what we have done so far, and in that I think we are going to keep each other motivated. I also would like to work on the other side of things with DKMS. Getting donors on the registry and spreading awareness of this real need in the world is only one aspect of what DKMS does. They also are very hands on with actual patients who are on the registry waiting for donors. They do amazing things in hospitals, research, and treatments for patients with blood cancer. I would love to eventually be a part of that aspect of things. After all those patients and families are my motivations to keep doing what I’m doing.
I think it’s important to stay connected to the “why” these drives are so necessary. That is the side of DKMS that is very hard and emotional, but it is important to keep seeing and paying attention to it. Otherwise it would be really easy to lose sight of your goals and motivation. I don’t think anything could be harder than making a connection with a patient who does not find a match in time and passes away. This is a sad truth that happens all the time, and I know that working on that side of things with DKMS will open me up to a lot of heartbreak. However I feel like that work is just as important if not more so then finding potential donors. To possibly impact their lives and allowing them to impact my own I know will be so rewarding and beautiful. I also think that’s a huge part of the human experience, finding strength and light in the darkest and hardest places.
What I am really looking forward to is getting a call that a match was made through one of my drives. A really cool thing that DKMS does is give each volunteer or drive a drive code that gets put on every application. This drive code is used to keep track of all of the donors that I signed up. DKMS goes out of their way to make sure that the people who volunteer get to see the benefits of their work, and that’s in knowing that they had a small part in making a match happen. That phone call or email is going to be the best reward I could possibly think of.