Perspective and Any Thing Goes - Photoshop

Share Your Gift With the World
I chose to place an image of a marrow donor-- an image from the NMDP website www.marrow.org-- on top of an image of the globe, creating perspective by decreasing the image size (using the free transform tool) and adjusting the color of the image (using the warming tool). I struggled with this as I am very new at this Photoshop stuff. I think the image--at its best-- could represent that your gift of life (a marrow donation) could travel the globe to save a life.

Background

^ Original sunrise photo.

^ Original donor exchange photo.

I chose to place an image of a marrow donor and marrow recipient embracing in the forefront of a sunrise. I think it makes for a symbolic image: a sunrise is the start of a new day ... a transplant -- the start of a new life.
In fact, marrow recipients, when asked how old they are, may tell you they are the age in years equivalent to their days/months/years post-transplant. Example: a 45 year-old man who received the gift of life (a marrow transplant) seven years ago, would be 7 years old.

The National Marrow Donor Program

http://www.marrow.org/ABOUT/indexHTML (Copyright 2008 National Donor Marrow Program)

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) oversees the world's largest registry of marrow donors, The NMDP Registry of Donors.

Each year 35,000 Americans are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by bone marrow or cord blood transplantation. Only 30 percent will find a life-saving marrow donor match within their family. On any given day 6,000 men, women and children search the Registry for an unrelated marrow donor match-- and a second chance at life.

Click here to learn more at www.marrow.org.

The Bone Marrow Foundation

The Bone Marrow Foundation is another great resource for bone marrow and stem cell transplant patients.  The foundation provides educational, emotional and financial support for patients, their families and friends.

The foundation is meant to be a "starting point" for patients who are to undergo transplantation: to learn facts about transplantation, to learn how to cover the crushing financial aspect of transplantation and how to cope "emotionally" with transplantation.

The Bone Marrow Foundation provides frequently asked questions regarding transplantation, facts about transplantation, connects patients with post-BMT and stem cell transplant patients, and provides "direct financial aid" to transplant patients to help alleviate the astronomical financial strain transplantation can place on an individual and their family.

BMT Info Net

BMT infonet is exactly what its name eludes it to be--a "blood and marrow transplant (BMT) information network".  This site provides resources for undergoing and surviving bone marrow transplantation, providing site visitors with both educational and emotional support. 

[Available resources include:   resources directory, a directory of transplant centers, news updates on transplantation,  a drug database, books on transplantation, etc. ] 

BMT infonet also connects BMT patients with BMT survivors, as well as refers patients and survivors to financial institutions to help individuals understand the costs of transplantation [which can be extreme] and demonstrate how to raise/collect the money necessary to have the sufficient funds for pre- and post-transplantation expenses.

NTAF

National Transplant Assistance Fund & Catastrophic Injury Program (NTAF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that assists transplant and catastrophic injury patients in fundraising for their uninsured medical expenses.

NTAF is Celebrating 25 Years of Service October 2007 through October 2008.

Support NTAF's celebratory initiative "Save a Life" -- a year-long commitment to educate and register 250 potential marrow donors to the NMDP Registry of Donors.

To learn more about the NMDP Registry visit the NMDP website www.marrow.org.

To learn more about NTAF and our Save a Life Initiative visit the NTAF website www.transplantfund.org.

Bone Marrow Transplants

The topic I chose to delve into for this course is bone marrow transplants. This topic is appealing to me because it relates closely to my current professional work.

I work at a local nonprofit (NTAF) that helps transplant (solid organ, bone marrow and stem cell) patients, as well as individuals living with catastrophic injury (spinal cord injury, brain trauma and burns), fundraise for their uninsured medical expenses.

NTAF has a 24-year record (and counting) helping transplant patients nationwide afford life-saving medical care. (Our Catastrophic Injury Program was initiated in 2000, as we discovered how our services to the transplant community could be emulated to accommodate the financial needs of individuals living with catastrophic injuries.)

As a celebration of our upcoming 25th anniversary (October 2008), we launched our Save a Life Initiative--a year-long commitment (started in October 2007) to educate the local community about the importance of bone marrow donation, with a goal of registering 250 potential marrow donors to the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry.

We have chosen this initiative as a fitting means to commemorate our silver anniversary, because part of our mission as an organization is to conduct transplant donor awareness. (The need is great. Currently 97,000 individuals await transplantation. The need to raise awareness is critical.)

NTAF is currently working with 102 bone marrow transplant patients, many are holding marrow donor registration drives (in search of life-saving marrow donor matches) in their hometowns, nationwide. As cancer becomes a more prevalent word in our world-- 35,000 diagnosed with blood cancers alone each year-- NTAF would like to extend a helping hand to the thousands who search for a life-saving donor match, daily, in hope of a second chance at life.

As part of our education efforts, NTAF has and will hold several bone marrow "lunch and learns" in our corporate community (Radnor, Pa.) and several marrow drives in the local and surrounding communities.

I am responsible for publicizing these efforts and creating promotional materials for correlated events. I'd like to gain further knowledge of this topic so that I can better communicate our objectives and the "need" through beautiful and action-driven materials (for web and print).