Though I have not personally donated, I have been swabbed in the US via the BeTheMatch organization [0] and I know people who have donated. The swabbing process is very easy and free. However, donation is not as easy as with blood. The process covers a few weeks, typically a flight and overnight stay before donation, and then the process itself which can be difficult at times. One key thing that I discovered is that you do not ever meet your match and there are strict rules against this (due to prior events with racism, sexism, religious issues, etc).
Bone marrow donation is not an easy thing. However, it is a heroic thing. You are very personally and quite literally, saving someone's life that you will likely never meet (what a world we live in!). With blood donation, it's a bit less connected, at least here in the US. They tell you that you are saving up to 3 people's lives. But outside of the donation station, you never really think about it again or hear from anyone about it. With marrow donation, you, and only you, are the reason that another real person is alive [1]. It's much more, well, intimate(?) than with blood donation.
Also, as HN tends to be a bit more on the paranoid side, I checked and they do NOT store any genetic information about you. Only the lymphocyte tests are stored via HIPAA compliance and are deleted when you decide to go off the registry. It seems that they are not very shady, so to speak, and really are trying to save lives and nothing else.
Please, if you are able, consider becoming a donor today.
Bone marrow donation is not an easy thing. However, it is a heroic thing. You are very personally and quite literally, saving someone's life that you will likely never meet (what a world we live in!). With blood donation, it's a bit less connected, at least here in the US. They tell you that you are saving up to 3 people's lives. But outside of the donation station, you never really think about it again or hear from anyone about it. With marrow donation, you, and only you, are the reason that another real person is alive [1]. It's much more, well, intimate(?) than with blood donation.
Also, as HN tends to be a bit more on the paranoid side, I checked and they do NOT store any genetic information about you. Only the lymphocyte tests are stored via HIPAA compliance and are deleted when you decide to go off the registry. It seems that they are not very shady, so to speak, and really are trying to save lives and nothing else.
Please, if you are able, consider becoming a donor today.
Be an honest-to-God, real, actual Hero today.
[0] https://bethematch.org/
[1] Not to discount all the staff, nurses, doctors, researchers, financial donors, etc.