SheKnows Puts Focus on Bone Marrow Awareness – Pledges to Add 50,000 Donors to International Bone Marrow Registry by Next Year

LOS ANGELES, CA – August 4, 2008

SheKnows.com, one of the fastest growing online destinations for women, announced today the launch of their dedicated feature site (www.SheKnows.com/bone-marrow) promoting bone marrow awareness and offering its users the chance to participate in this life saving movement by registering for a bone marrow donor kit.

In partnership with Save Giovanni's Friends and the leading bone marrow donor agency DKMS Americas, SheKnows pledges to add 50,000 new donors to the international bone marrow registry by 2009. Michael Guglielmo, leader of the Save Giovanni's Friends Movement, is taking the search for new bone marrow registrants to SheKnows in hopes of bringing in new donors. At only five months of age, his infant son Giovanni was stricken with a rare immune system disorder, NEMO, confirmed in 68 kids worldwide. Guglielmo has initiated an effort to fill the national bone marrow registry with as many donors as possible. Over the last year and a half his efforts have added more than 15,000 new donors, located ten life saving matches and inspired a papal blessing from the Pope to Giovanni.

Giovanni was saved, but 6,000 others dying from leukemia, blood cancer, and immune system disorders are looking for a life saving match everyday. The Save Giovanni's Friends site registers an average of 10 new donors a month. Guglielmo hopes that an information boost from SheKnows dispelling myths about bone marrow donation will bring a huge increase in the number of donation registry number.

“We are trying to make our readers aware of the importance of bone marrow donation,” explained Tony Pagliocco, Director of Technology for SheKnows, who followed the Giovanni Movement since it became public. “We want this to be a one-stop center for people looking for information.” SheKnows attracts over 12 million unique visitors with over 100 million page views each month.

Those who want to register will simply provide their mailing information, through online registration at SheKnows. The easy sign up process involves a one page application and two cotton swabs that one rubs inside the cheeks of their month. Guglielmo will issue the swabs, a lab will test them, and DKMS Americas will add the new donor to the registry.

DKMS is the largest donor center with over 1.7 million registered donors and have facilitated over 14,000 transplants. While most registries charge $55 to $65 for a test kit, DKMS Americas is the only nonprofit in the country that does not require any fee. They welcome donations to help cover the costs.

“The potential for saving a life is staggering. What I really want people to do is recognize that becoming a bone marrow donor is no longer a painful process,” Guglielmo says. “If you are a match at some point, 80 percent of the cases involve a procedure similar to giving blood and it involves no pain.”

(Pictured: Baby Giovanni at only five months of age, fighting the rare immune system disorder, NEMO, confirmed in 68 kids worldwide. Leading Women’s online destination, SheKnows.com, pledges to add 50,000 donors to the International Bone Marrow Registry by next year.)