Back in grad school I found Amit via a wee little company he had started called Photojojo. Since then I’ve had the privilege of following him along a most amazing adventure of watching PJ truly blossom into something great, learning so much along the way. I feel like Amit has helped me so much in my own career, life and development over the past 5 years, and now it’s really hard to see him - such an unstoppable and positive force - facing some serious challenges. I feel confident though, that the impact he has created on every community he has touched - both online and off - will be strong enough to find this awesome dude what he needs: a bone marrow donor. So - get to it - spread the word.Two weeks ago I got a call from my doctor, who I’d gone to see the day before because I’d been feeling worn out and was losing weight, and wasn’t sure why.
He was brief: “Amit, you’ve got Acute Leukemia. You need to enter treatment right away.”
I was terrified. I packed a backpack full of clothes, went to the hospital as he’d instructed, and had transfusions through the night to allow me to take a flight home at 7am the next day. I Googled acute leukemia as I lay in my hospital bed, learning that if it hadn’t been caught, I’d have died within weeks.
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I have a couple more months of chemo to go, then the next step is a bone marrow transplant. As Jay and Tony describe below, minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help.
A few ways to help:
- If you’re South Asian, get a free test by mail. You rub your cheeks with a cotton swab and mail it back. It’s easy.
- If you’re in NYC, you can go to this event my friends are putting on.
- If you know any South Asians (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, or Sri Lanka), please point ‘em to the links above. Thank you.
(Source: jayparkinsonmd)
