PRESIDENTS PROJECT

Ann Teal, president of the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants has announced that her Presidents project will be “Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’”. We will begin by selling PA Bears at the Fall Conference.

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Each year there are nearly 100,000 patients diagnosed with some form of blood cancer. Options on therapy range from watchful waiting, chemotherapy and ultimately for many, bone marrow transplantation. Two organizations play key roles in the process of blood cancer treatment. One is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The second is the National Marrow Donor Program. Each one plays a very individual yet crucial role.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society offers patient support in many areas. They offer patient and caregiver education and patient services including but not limited to financial assistance and patient mentoring/support programs. In addition to their patient support, they have also donated over $400 million dollars in blood cancer research since 1949. Truly, they are THE resource for patients and providers dealing with these cancers.

The National Marrow Donor Program fills the critical need of facilitator for bone marrow transplants. They coordinate donor drives and testing to match potential donors. They also are the primary contact with matched donors, organizing the pre-transplant work up and marrow harvest. Approximately 25,000 patients have received transplants through this program over the last 20 years. Unfortunately when compared to other ethnicities, there is a disparity in the number of donor registrants who are Caucasian. While there are roughly six million Caucasian registrants, there are approximately 500,000 registrants each for Hispanic, African-American and Asian ethnic groups.

In choosing my President's Project for this year, personal crisis helped to identify an area of need. With my husband's recent diagnosis of myelodysplasia syndrome and acute myelogenous leukemia then subsequent bone marrow transplant, I have decided to focus my project on both the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the National Marrow Donor Program. At each of our CME conferences attendees will have the opportunity to register as potential bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell donors. Furthermore, the Texas Physician Assistant Foundation is selling PA bears to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for only $10.00! In addition to the monetary donation being raised through bear sales, some of the bears have been allocated for donation to cancer stricken children. Please join me in supporting these worthy causes!