Be the Match & The Icla da Silva Foundation

The Be The Match Registry®, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), is the world’s largest registry of potential bone marrow and cord blood donors. More than 9 million donors and more than 160,000 searchable cord blood units are available for thousands of patients across the world that rely on bone marrow transplants to survive. 

The Icla da Silva Foundation is proud to share the Be The Match Registry® success. Over the past 19 years, the institution has grown to be the largest recruitment center for the national registry - more than 185,000 people have signed up through over 2,200 marrow drives held all over the US each year. In 2010 alone, the Foundation has added 39,000 new donors to the registry - an average of 100 people every day!  

A bone marrow transplant is the only hope for thousands of patients with leukemia and many other life-threatening diseases. Over 70 percent of these patients won’t find a matching donor within their family, so their only hope is to find a match on the Be The Match Registry. 

The Icla da Silva Foundation plays a major role to create a more ethnically diverse registry in the United States. Because a bone marrow transplant requires genetic compatibility between donor and recipient, you are most likely to find a match within your own ethnicity. Because the majority of registered donors are Caucasians, patients from communities such as Hispanic, Asian, African or Native American face a greater challenge in finding a matching donor. The Icla da Silva Foundation works closely within these communities to change this reality. 

National Marrow Donor Program Video

Register as a bone marrow donor. Save lives! National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)