The birth of YMM came after experiencing the reality of what it means to need the stem cell registry to survive.
Stem cell registries are great tools but the truth is that they are not where they need to be. We are on a mission to help change that.
Very few quality matches exist and the majority of people who need a match to survive will not find a good one that takes. We have to change the odds so that more people can continue to live and beat the odds.
Our mission is to…
Get more people swabbed.
Imagine the lives we could save if every eligible person was already on the registry.
Registries around the world are far from having enough people swabbed and cataloged to help everyone who has and will, rely on the registry to survive. Donations and awareness are great but they do not solve this problem. Getting more people swabbed does.
Our primary goal is to figure out different ways to get people swabbed and on their registry. Not enough is being done to make this happen and we will try our best to remove the roadblocks that exist.
Share all the stories that we can.
Real human stories need to be told.
We will give a voice to those who want to be heard with a story to tell. We will celebrate those who have found a match and beat the odds. We will share the journeys of the people who are currently fighting to survive, looking for a match that might not exist. We will honor the lives of those we have lost because the sad reality is that this is the most common outcome.
We will also share the stories of family, friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have also been affected. They are part of the story as well and the represent the majority of us.
Add more diversity to registries.
Diversity is key to making sure that everyone shares similar odds in what is already a mathematical equation with less-than-stellar results.
The world is a diverse place but the registries do not adequately represent that for a number of reasons. In North America, the odds of finding a match is already quite low but those numbers plummet if you are a non-caucasian in need of a donor. With reduced odds, we have to add even more donors of different colours and races.
In other parts of the world, registries have an even harder time getting donors due to various religious and cultural beliefs that exist. This means that we have to try even harder to change the odds of finding a match.