Mayim Bialik Wants You to Swab and Save a Life

Mayim Bialik has parlayed her inner dorky nerd into an acting career that has spanned decades. But she doesn’t just portray a nerd on The Big Bang Theory, she is, on top of everything else, an actual scientist. She earned an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish studies at UCLA before getting a PhD focused on obsessive compulsive disorder among people with Prader-Willi syndrome. She’s also written a book about parenting based on the science of hormones involved in parent-child bonding, to be released some time in 2012. You can say she’s pretty smart. So when Mayim Bialik talks, you should listen. And without further ado…

I’ve done this swab thing. The vast majority of the participants that I lead on Birthright Israel, 12 buses, nearly 500 people, did the swab thing. It doesn’t hurt, takes about 2 minutes, you might save a life and it’s Mayim Bialik approved! See, more than 70 percent of patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, or other blood cancers cannot find a marrow match in their family so their only hope is to find a donor from a stranger. 10,000 patients will need a bone marrow transplant on any given day; half will receive one, according to the National Marrow Donor Program. That’s where you come in!

Maybe you swab will save a life. Or maybe you want to think about making a donation? Each swab kit costs $54 to process. Want to know how you can help? Go visit the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation at giftoflife.org for more information. Tell them Mayim sent you.