Amit Gupta, Co-Founder Of Photojojo, Finds Bone Marrow Match With Help From Social Media Campaign

With the help of more than 100 bone marrow drives and a full-blown social media offensive, Amit Gupta has found a lifesaving match, the co-founder of Photojojo announced on his website.

Gupta, who is of Indian descent, was despondent after learning of his acute leukemia diagnosis in October, but refused to give up, even though he knew that the chances of his finding a match was 1 in 20,000. He and his friends and family quickly mobilized an all out Facebook and Twitter campaign (he was even a trending topic and one point) and raised $30,000 to give to the prospective match, whether that person chose to donate or not, Bloomberg reported.

Spreading the word worked.

Gupta found a 10/10 matched donor and is heading to Dana Farber in Boston for treatment, the 32-year-old announced on his website, AmitGuptaNeedsYou.com.

"You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others)," Gupta wrote. "I've got a long road ahead. But I've got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn't have many options. Today I have a plan."

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Comments

[ilovevegas]

11:35 AM on 01/22/2012

That is just amazing. You hear so much bad stuff and then this...so happy for this young man and the generosity of people willing to help just gives renewed hope for us all.

[shangrolah]

04:33 AM on 01/21/2012

A person saved his life, not Facebok.

[kjhong]

06:18 PM on 01/20/2012

Great story. It's encouraging to see the power of social media. The search for one person is over. But the fight still goes on for others. Four-year-old Kyle Crawford is half-Caucasian and half-Chinese is looking for a bone marrow donor. Register now if you haven't and follow Kyle's search at http://kyleneedsyou.org/

[chickline]

08:34 PM on 01/20/2012

Hope that Kyle will have the same luck as Amit Gupta.

[shangrolah]

04:33 AM on 01/21/2012

Good luck Kyle!

[Garry Carlson]

04:31 PM on 01/20/2012

Wow! Such a great story. It makes me want to go down and donate, except I had yellow jaundice as a teen, and, was told never try and donate blood. I assume that includes marrow?

[YankeeCanuck]

11:55 AM on 01/22/2012

It may not be the same deal--they are filtering out stem cells from the donor's blood. Bone marrow is no longer taken. It's worth asking.

[Garry Carlson]

02:52 PM on 01/23/2012

Thanks, I will ask my Doctor again. I feel I live to help my fellow man. It must be the Irish in me. No greater gift could be given than that of life. Dollars are too hard to come by these days to give away, but, I know they appreciate them.

[PoodleMom206]

03:26 PM on 01/20/2012

After initially reading Amit's story several months ago, I registered as a bone marrow donor. The process is so simple! Best of luck, Amit!

[shangrolah]

04:34 AM on 01/21/2012

You might just save a life sometime. Thanks for doing that!

[moeelmore]

01:10 PM on 01/20/2012

I volunteered as a bone marrow donor years ago. When I moved, as I have a number of times, I tried without success to update my address. Unless they have improved the system, I expect there are literally thousands of potential donors that have been lost. Too bad, but good for Gupta.

[visconti24]

02:18 PM on 01/20/2012

I have been a donor twice. But that was 10 years ago and they had to extract the marrow without anesthesia and I nearly went mad with pain. Is it still done that way or things have improved?

[emariejon]

04:28 PM on 01/20/2012

They usually use epidurals now.

[mzrecycle]

08:48 AM on 01/22/2012

I'm impressed that you agreed to it a second time after going thru that much pain. I'm not totally sure that I would. So glad they've made it easier for the donors with the epidural.

[YankeeCanuck]

11:57 AM on 01/22/2012

Now it is done very differently--cells are taken from blood, not bone. The registry has been digitised and centralised and is far more effective. It's worth volunteering again.

[visconti24]

02:24 PM on 01/22/2012

I may be too old and have had a heart attack and have 3 nice stents implanted, but I am from an old traceable family with an incredible number of intermarriages for centuries, among cousins, first and otherwise and several uncle-nieces, Mediterranean (Italian Portuguese.)15-20 years ago the cataloging of blood types, with complete listing of antibodies, was not so sophisticated. Now they can spot freaks of nature like me anywhere in the world and "invite" them to donate.

[joleea3]

01:09 PM on 01/20/2012

Good news in the news finally. Get well soon.

[missy123]

12:58 PM on 01/20/2012

I have a 20 year old nephew who was diagnosed in October with Leukemia. His counts were so low he was almost dead. He never thought anything was wrong other than he had a sinus infection and cold symptoms.
Thankfully he has the type of leukemia that is easiest to treat and after 1 month he was released from the hospital.
That was our first "gift"!
He and his wife had a baby boy on Christmas day!
This was our second gift!
Currently he is in the hospital with an infection that has put a damper on his blood counts not to mention his outlook on life!
It'll be a good 7-10 days until he's released then he starts his last week of maintenance chemo.
Amit I hope you have a full recovery and a long happy life!
No One Fights Alone!

[jellyj]

07:13 PM on 01/22/2012

They say good luck comes in threes. Wishing him all the best.

[missy123]

07:39 PM on 01/22/2012

Thank you!