Your help is needed!!!

           There will be a blood drive on Monday, September 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the City Hall Fire House, at 27^th Street and Avenue C. The drive is co-sponsored by the Bayonne Fire Department and the Bayonne Police Department, and is taking place to respond to the critically low blood supply.  Area blood banks are short of all blood types, so all blood types are welcome in this drive.  Supplies of the following blood types are especially low: O negative, O positive, A negative, and B negative. Health officials  ask prospective blood donors to bring signed or photo identification and to know their Social Security numbers.

Any adult who is physically able is welcome to donate blood.  Prospective donors who are 16 or 17 may donate blood if they can produce completed parental consent forms that are available from the Blood Center of New Jersey. In order to prevent donors from being weak after giving blood, drive organizers are asking donors to eat a meal beforehand.  Health professionals will screen prospective donors before blood is drawn.  There will be a free cholesterol check for all blood donors.  For more information, please call the Blood Center of New Jersey at 1-800-652-5663, ext. 100.  Anyone who has traveled outside of the United States, or who has other eligibility questions, should call 973-676-4700, ext. 132.

For the first time, the blood drive will also feature a bone marrow registry drive.  Blood donors will have the option to be screened for a bone marrow match. Those from 18 to 44 years of age are eligible to join the Be the Match Registry, which benefits patients with blood diseases.  Patients with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia, or other blood diseases search the registry  every day for a marrow match.  The more potential donors on the registry, the better each patient’s chance of receiving a life-saving bone marrow transplant.  The Be the Match Registry needs members who: 1) meet health guidelines; 2) are willing to donate to any patient in need; and 3) agree to keep contact information current so the registry staff could reach you  quickly if you are a match for a patient.  Be the Match needs diverse members, because patients are more likely to match someone of their own racial or ethnic heritage.  The philosophy of Be the Match is that every patient deserves a second chance at life  For more information about the registry, please visit BetheMatch.org.