My name is Greg Volok and I am the founder of the KeyForLife Foundation. In 2003 I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and in 2011 I was extremely grateful to receive a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. I came to realize that people have tremendous misconceptions about becoming a bone marrow donor and about umbilical cord blood stem cell collection.

It became apparent to me that shattering the myths surrounding these issues was crucial to the survival of thousands, perhaps millions, of people afflicted with cancer.

The last resort to life for a patient with leukemia (about 70 life-threatening cancers and diseases in all) is a transplant of healthy blood stem cells. These stem cells MUST come from a matching bone marrow donor or from umbilical cord blood. But, unfortunately, the list of people searching for their donor is long and growing, while the number of donors is short and stagnant.

Leukemia, like any cancer or disease, does not discriminate. It does not care whether you are a child or adult, white or black, Asian or Hispanic, young or old, rich or poor. It can strike any one at any time regardless of who you are. And when it does, it will change everything you ever thought was right. You will face challenges and uncertainties that will lead you to question your life, priorities and even beliefs. But most importantly, it will force you to face your own mortality.

If you are one of the VERY few lucky individuals who has a relative that is a match, then consider yourself blessed. Only 4 out of 10 patients are able to find a matching donor who can save their life. The rest are left desperately searching the globe for that one person who can save their life.

The best possible way to help these men, women and children to survive is to become a bone marrow donor. Another way is if you are pregnant or know somebody who is pregnant; consider becoming an umbilical cord blood donor. GET THE REAL FACTS ABOUT DONATING.

Having a bone marrow or cord blood transplant is unbelievably expensive! The right to life unfortunately comes with huge medical costs associated with it that many families just cannot afford to pay. It often sends family spiraling into bankruptcy that causes stress and tears families apart at their most trying time. So they often cannot spare the money to run their own donor drives.

Additionally, people who want to become donors are often deterred from doing so because of the small fee that sometimes comes with signing up to be a donor. This fee is used to cover the costs of registration, mailing of the kit and lab costs. But now and then, even people with good intentions just cannot spare the money to register.

Lastly, there are so many terrible MISCONCEPTIONS associated with becoming a donor that many people do not even consider becoming a donor.

Your DONATION to the KeyForLife Foundation is going to help end all of that. YOUR donation is going to help increase the amount of donors. YOU will be the one who helps families and help new donors pay for their registration fees. YOU are going to help so many men, women and children who thought there was no hope, rediscover life and survive another day.

In my quest to find my own matching donor, I hope to also enroll an army of new donors who will help so many other patients like me who are seeking a match but do not have the same resources that I do. But I can only do this with your help!

Your donation is going to help run bone marrow drives that will enroll many new donors into the National Marrow Donor Program. Your contribution will go towards financing donor registration drives. Together, we can get people of all ages and ethnicity to come together for this great cause.

The KeyForLife Foundation will help you develop, organize, and carry out a successful donor registry drive. We will assist you with the fund-raising campaign and help you cover the costs.