At the end of June this year, a victory occurred for minorities across the U.S. The historic event, spearheaded by the incredible efforts of New York–based couple Shana and Bret Melius of Preserve Our Legacy, Inc., was the passing of Jaden’s Law (by Assemblyman Keith L. Wright), an act to amend public health law providing for the creation and dissemination of information pertaining to bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell donation, and stem cell donation registration.

Jaden’s Law is inspired by Jaden Hilton, a three-year-old African-American boy who wasn’t able to find a matching donor and died of leukemia on January 29, 2007. Jaden’s Law is of huge importance for minority communities—it requires doctors and hospitals to advise all patients of their option to donate bone marrow, with an emphasis on people of color. Health disparities affecting minorities include diabetes, sickle cell anemia, heart disease, cancers and roughly 76 other diseases.

An upcoming bone marrow drive for 10-year old Lloyd “LJ” Jones (pictured above) is taking place in Harlem, NY tomorrow. Registration is nothing more than the completion of an application and a swab on both cheeks—the simple swab puts you on the national bone marrow registration list.

Watch the video of the recent drive for LJ in Atlanta, in which Grammy award–winner Chrisette Michele (at 4:50) and others participated:

Here’s Preserve Our Legacy’s PSA for Jaden’s Law:

If you’re in the New York area and want to participate in LJ’s bone marrow drive tomorrow, here are the details:

Date: October 14, 2010
Location: 646 Lenox Ave./Malcolm X Blvd.
Time: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

For more information about the donation process, visit www.marrow.org.

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