Bravery.

Dear Mom,


So I hope no one gets offended with what I am about to rant about, but I feel this is something I want to say. This is important to me, and I want you and everyone to understand something. 


Recently I have been officially registered into the Be the Match registry, to hopefully match with someone someday who needs donations of my bone marrow or PBSC. This is really important to me, and I have been wanting to do it ever since I turned 18. I am glad that I have finally done it, and soon my official card will be in the mail. 


Now. I have talked about this on Facebook a little bit, and people have told me numerous times that they are "proud of me" and that "I am so brave." 


Truth is? I'm not brave. 


Some people think I am crazy for going through with it, because the procedure is painful, I would be in recovery for a week, etc. 


Yeah? So what. 


I am not the brave one. The brave ones are all the people who need the blood stell cells and bone marrow, the people who are fighting their battles of cancer. They have a daily battle of dealing with this terrible disease. How am I brave for getting one procedure done? Actually, how am I brave, when there's a microscopic chance I will ever match with anyone else in my lifetime? 


And how am I crazy for wanting to do this? Why should I care if it will hurt? I would be saving someone's life! After donating, I can live my life perfectly fine, the way I always have. While they need my donation to hopefully save them from their life-threatening disease. There is no comparison to the short-lived recovery period I would go through, with their battle of cancer. 


I'm sorry if this comes off strong, but I just feel in my heart that I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary. EVERYONE should be doing this. Only 1 out of 540 registered members actually get to make a donation to a patient. If more people were registered, more matches could be made, and more lives could be saved. This is just a no-brainer to me. I am doing this because I should. And because I can. 


Mom, if you had to die from your battle of Leukemia, why should I even think twice about trying to save someone else from their battle? It's something I have to do. 


I love you Mom. Thank you for inspiring me. 




             Love your baby doll,
              Tessy Loo Loo


p.s. For anyone I may have inspired, the link for registering to donate is: http://marrow.org/Home.aspx