Patient Engagement
DKMS was founded in 1991 after one family’s struggle to find a life-saving bone marrow donor. Since then, our team has been dedicated to facilitating as many second chances at life as possible in order to give families more time with their loved ones.
We work directly with patients, their families, and their communities to share, educate, and encourage others to register as potential donors: the first step in providing a second chance at life for our patients. Each individual's story and journey is unique and we take great pride in providing a personalized approach for each patient and their caretakers.
It is an honor to work alongside our patients and their community to grow the registry and share the ultimate reward from these efforts: an opportunity for patients around the world to celebrate more birthdays, more anniversaries, and more life experiences. We look forward to supporting you and your loved ones to raise awareness, register new potential life-saving donors, and provide more hope to the 15,000 patients in need of a transplant.
Patient Resources and Programs:
Individualized Patient Approach
We provide an individualized approach to every single patient – sharing resources and tools, using our U.S.-based and international connections, and utilizing best practices for reaching and inspiring the largest number of people possible.
Free Family Typing Program
Because we understand the high financial burden of a cancer diagnosis and the complexities of the insurance system, we created a free family typing program to cover the costs of testing immediate family members (siblings, children and parents) for patients whose insurance plans do not cover this expense. The program is initiated with a request from the patient’s medical team and results are returned within 7-10 business days to the patient’s medical team.
Host a Donor Registration Drive
Hosting a donor registration drive with DKMS is a great opportunity for family and friends of patients to get involved - ideal for someone who ‘wants to do more’ and make an impact. Hosting a drive builds awareness of the need for blood stem cell donors and helps to increase the registry to find more donor matches for more patients. You can learn more about hosting a drive here.
Cost
There is no cost to register as a donor or host a drive. We never want money to play a role in someone’s willingness to host a donor drive or ability to register as a potential donor.
International Reach
DKMS is an international donor center sharing stories across seven countries where DKMS is present to create a global community of support. We collaborate closely with our team members in Germany, the UK, Chile, Poland, India and South Africa.
Education and Awareness
We recognize that one of the biggest hurdles to finding a matching donor is a lack of education and/or misinformation. By combining over three decades of experience in recruiting donors with our educational, professional and personal experiences, we educate communities around the United States and provide the tools needed to raise awareness and register new donors (between the ages of 18-55) to the registry at no cost.
Meet Our Current Patients:
DKMS works with numerous patients across the country and those above are just a handful of stories. You can learn about and connect with more patients and virtual drives here.
Testimonials
Dr. Omar Durani
"For us, DKMS was like a family member. When we were focusing on our child, DKMS shared our story and helped our friends and family set up drives throughout the nation in search of a match for our daughter." - Dr. Omar Durani
Anessa Haden
"It felt like all my prayers were answered when I was connected with DKMS. While I am fighting this horrible disease in the hospital with my baby, DKMS is sharing our story to help find her a donor. Not just one donor for my baby, but donors for LOTS of people’s babies. DKMS is truly the gift I didn’t even have to ask for." - Anessa Haden
Peggy Burkhard, Executive Director, nbmtLINK
“I cannot say enough about what a pleasure it is to partner with DKMS. In addition to saving lives, DKMS really focuses on the donor and the patient and all that they need to thrive and live life to the fullest. They are always finding new ways to educate and inspire and it does not go unnoticed. At nbmtLINK, we consider this organization to be second to none and first class in all they do.” - Peggy Burkhard, Executive Director