Ferruh Muktar

“I had never heard of Myelofibrosis before, but knew that it couldn’t be good,” said Ferruh.

With the support of a loving wife and a dedicated group of friends, Team Ferruh was created with a singular focus – To find him a compatible donor for a stem cell transplant.  However, Ferruh’s Turkish heritage made finding him a perfect donor challenging.  “There are statistics that show the likelihood of finding a donor by ethnicity,” Muktar shared. “Caucasians have a 77% chance of findings a match and the odds decrease from there for minority groups.  Historically, there have been all sorts of people who’ve occupied the Turkish region, so my blended ancestral composition is unique.  But my odds are certainly on the lower end of the spectrum.”

Although he and his group of dedicated friends have successfully added people to the international registry database, Team Ferruh knew they had to concentrate their efforts in order to find Ferruh his perfect match.  That’s when they turned to Marrow Mates for help.  “Our small non-profit was created to advocate on behalf of all blood cancer patients, but with an emphasis on searching patients of blended ethnicity,” said Jeff Haertling, Founder and Chief People Connector of Marrow Mates.  “Ferruh’s charisma and charm, coupled with his friend’s devotion to sourcing him a donor made it very easy to want to help,” Haertling said.  “With exhaustive research and a unique approach to target potential donors with his same genetic make-up, we built an entire program devoted to finding Ferruh’s perfect match.  The beauty of this effort is that it’ll help hundreds if not thousands of other searching patients with similar genetics as well.”

“To receive a cancer diagnosis and still consider myself lucky may seem a bit odd to hear, but it’s true,” Ferruh shared.  “Although we haven’t found my perfect match yet, I’ve got an entire army of people searching.  And not just for me, but for several others like me.  That gives me hope and the ability to believe in tomorrow.”

 To learn more about the program built around Ferruh, click on the link regarding Marrow Mates

EFDS Initiative (Extended Family Donor Search).