Help Remedies combines adhesive bandages with bone marrow donor registry kit

NEW YORK — Help Remedies on Monday announced the launch of "Help I’ve cut myself & I want to save a life," which supplements Help’s standard adhesive bandages with a bone marrow donor registry kit. By linking registry to a simple action, Help hopes to reduce barriers to donation and find matches for some of the 10,000 people in the United States who need bone marrow transplants each year.

“Each year thousands of people with leukemia and other blood cancers need a bone marrow transplant to live, yet fewer than half receive one," Help CEO Richard Fine said. "This is a simple and smart idea: By making registration a part of what people are already doing, we think we can get more people to register, and in doing so, help save lives.”

Help has partnered with DKMS, the world's largest bone marrow donor center, to process help I want to save a life kits, which contain sterile swabs and a postage-paid envelope. Using the kit is simple: The potential donor swabs the blood from their cut, and then mails the swabs in the envelope to DKMS to begin the donor registration process.

The concept for "Help I've cut myself & I want to save a life" was generated in a class led by advertising creative Graham Douglas, whose brother received a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Douglas challenged his students to inspire more people to register as donors. Together they arrived at the idea of including blood swab registry kits inside packets of adhesive bandages. Douglas contacted Help, who saw the idea’s potential, developed the kit, and worked with DKMS to establish the program.

"Help I’ve cut myself & I want to save a life" will be distributed to attendees of the TED 2012: Full Spectrum conference, and will be available for purchase on Fab.com and Help’s site, Helpineedhelp.com, with other retailers to follow.

Interested in this topic? Sign up for our weekly Collaborative Care e-newsletter.