The C.W. Bill Young / Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program, also known as Salute to Life, supports HLA research and recruitment, typing, and management of bone marrow and stem cell donors who are active-duty U.S. military, their dependents, DoD civilian employees, reservists, Coast Guard, National Guard members, retired military members, and associated civilians.

Established by Public Law 101-302, this program has worked tirelessly to increase the number of volunteer bone marrow and stem cell donors, improve the science of transplantation through research and refinement of histocompatibility gene matching, and safely and expeditiously connect qualified donors with the patients who so desperately need them.

Since 1991, more than 800,000 individuals have joined the national registry through this program.  Unfortunately, transplantation requires special matching of the donor's and recipient's Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) type - and with so many rare and unique HLA combinations - this is tough to do.  Every year there are patients diagnosed with one of the more than 50 diseases treatable with transplantation who are not offered hope because there is no donor available.

For more information about this program, HLA matching, or transplantation, please visit www.salutetolife.org or call 1-800-MARROW-3.  (The civilian branch of this program can be found at www.bethematch.org.)

Salute to Life, C.W. Bill Young / Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program

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