Elise Collins This is Me

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1. 1. www.capecodonline.com

   www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbc - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/28/2007   Last Visited: 12/28/2007

   Bone marrow drives held on the Cape to help find donors for the 6-month-old already have identified one person who appears to be a match for somebody suffering from a deadly blood disease, said Elise Collins, donor center manager for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
   ...
   "This is one of the biggest drives we've ever done," Collins said. Typical drives attract between 30 to 300 people.
   
   The tissue types of people whose cheeks were swabbed for a potential match will be stored until the potential donors are 60 years old.
   
   "At any point, any of these donors could match a patient anywhere in the world," Collins said.
   ...
   The transplantation is an attempt to help patients build a healthy new immune system, but patients have to be strong enough to withstand the chemotherapy and radiation that go along with it, Collins said.

2. 2. www.eagletribune.com

   www.eagletribune.com/punews/lo - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/9/2007   Last Visited: 4/9/2007

   "We've definitely seen an upsurge lately in people doing this," said Elise Collins, donor center manager for the marrow program at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
   
   On one day alone, March 3, three local families held bone marrow drives. Two were in the same town.
   
   In Derry that day, a drive for a 32-year-old mother who has leukemia drew 1,016 people to Calvary Bible Church to join the registry. It was one of the largest of the drives run by Dana Farber in recent memory, Collins said.
   ...
   Collins said she's not sure why there has been a surge in potential donors joining the registry, but the trend cannot be denied. It's probably a variety of factors, she said, including an increased push for recruitment on the part of registries, a simpler cheek swab screening that recently replaced blood samples, and the sheer charisma of patients and their families.
   
   "For a long time it was mostly 30 to 150 people (at a typical bone marrow drive), which is still wonderful," Collins said.
   ...
   That's what's so amazing about the international registry of potential donors, said Collins, of Dana-Farber.
   
   "Without someone doing a drive here, someone in California won't have a donor. And without doing a drive there, someone in Australia won't have a donor," she said. "It's really worldwide cooperation."
   ...
   The decision to do it, though, should not be taken lightly, said Elise Collins, donor center manager of the marrow program at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
   
   At any point until you turn 61, your sample could be matched with an anonymous person anywhere in the world and you could be called upon to save his or her life.
   
   The donation requires either minor surgery, in which bone marrow is withdrawn through a special hollow needle, or a process similar to donating blood.
   
   Both methods involve some discomfort for the donor, Collins said, and may require time off from work.
   
   The donation always is voluntary and the donor can say no at any point in the process, she said. But but if somebody knows they don't want to follow through with a donation it's better to stay off the registry than to join and be put in an uncomfortable situation once a match is made.
   
   "There's nothing worse than calling someone when they come up with a match and have them say, 'Is that what I signed up for?'" Collins said.

3. 3. www.thedispatchnews.com

   www.thedispatchnews.com/link.a - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/9/2002   Last Visited: 6/30/2004

   Helping to give someone's parent, sibling or child a chance of a lifetime is one of life's rarest gifts," says Elise Collins, a recruiter with the Dana-Farber NMDP Donor Center.