SMCKC, we need your help. Our longtime member and friend, Ken Miner, needs us to pool our resources and do what we do best: share! Ken's wife, Kris, is in need of a DNA match for bone marrow donation and we need you to help us add people to the National Bone Marrow Registry. We're also raising money for the organization to continue to afford the DNA tests needed to take registrants.

During the next several days, we'll be tweeting on behalf of #teamkrisminer with the goal to get the hashtag trending. We'll lead people to Kris' donation page -- our goal is to register 1,000 people and raise $25,000.

If you'd like to help out, please consider signing up to be a bone marrow donor and/or donating to the national registry. We'd also love your help in spreading the word. Here's a tweet that you can copy and paste:

I'm joining #teamkrisminer to raise awareness of the need for bone marrow registrants everywhere. Join us http://bit.ly/M3TXDv

Feel free to post the donation page link on your other social networks, too. Thanks so much for your support and for all you do - this is exactly what makes SMCKC so amazing!

For more information, here's a letter from Ken Miner:

All,

For the past 10 years, my wife Kris has been fighting a form of cancer called Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma or CTCL.  CTCL is a slow progressing cancer that has a treatment protocol but no cure.  Most people with CTCL treat it for their entire lives with a normal life expectancy. 

In very rare cases, CTCL transforms in to another form of cancer.  On April 23^rd, we learned that Kris’ CTCL had transformed to Stage 4B Large Cell Lymphoma.  Her PET scan revealed that there are tumors on her skin, her lungs and lymph nodes.

Large Cell Lymphoma is a very intrusive form of Lymphoma that requires immediate and aggressive treatment.  Untreated, it carries a life expectancy of 1-3 years.  She started her chemo treatment on May 9^th. 

Transformed CTCL is extremely rare and there is only one known treatment:  A Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant.  The details are outlined in on the treatment plan page ofwww.kris-miner.com .  The transplant is extremely risky for CTCL patients.  With a matched DNA donor, there’s a 30-40% success rate and a 30-40% mortality rate associated with the procedure.

On May 11, we learned that out of the 17 million people in the National Bone Marrow Registry, there’s not a single match for Kris. 

So we really need people’s help and prayers.  We need people to register and pray for a DNA match before her transplant.  You can register to become a bone marrow donor here:  http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx?promo_code=krisminer