SafePride, FDA Ban and Nat
If you missed the MomsThoughts show yesterday, you may want to give it a listen. We had Nat on yesterday as our guest. Nat is a wife, mother and doctor. Nat is also fighting a rare blood cancer. In order to LIVE Nat needs a transfusion and unfortunately Nat has an extremely rare blood type. Her blood type is HH also known as "Bombay Blood" Having such a rare blood type made the odds of finding a donor extremely difficult. You can imagine her delight when she found a donor, some one she knew! She and her family (Nat and her wife have 9 children!!) were ecstatic! but the joy was short lived. Her perfect match was a gay man. Did you know gay men are banned for life from donating blood or tissue? Without a donor, Nat will die. Her despair grew with each day. Enter Cookie Laurita on Twitter. When I saw Cookie's tweets I knew this was real and urgent. I did what I could. I tweeted, facebooked and immediately asked Nat if she would like to come on my radio show! Anything we could do to get this word out. The show was great. I was astounded with Nat's composure and courage as she spoke of her illness, family and her impending death. I was moved by her passion to change this ridiculous ban. I was impressed with her knowledge and ability to convey it clearly and simply in a manner we could understand. It truly was an honor for me to host her (along with my co-host Jill Rivera). I hope you will listen. Last night, after spending the day tweeting anyone and every one I could think of, Nat posted the most miraculous news. A donor came forward on Twitter, after a day of confirming her compatibility, Nat was able to confirm, a match had been found. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a miracle looks like! Anyone who doesn't "get" Twitter or thinks social media is a waste of time, never felt a part of a miracle like this! What an incredible experience.
I believe strongly that the universe brought us all together to help cure Nat and also to bring to light the outrageous discriminatory policy of the FDA to ban all blood and tissue donations by gay men for life. This is a fight that must continue!
Listen to podcast here
Learn more about SafePride, FDA Ban and Nat here