HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Help us greet the new year with a 2nd chance at life!

With your financial contribution, you are supporting us in fulfilling our mission to save more lives…to give more patients that 2nd chance at life. Funds that we raise help us recruit potential bone marrow donors and add them to the Be The Match donor registry.

donate and make a difference

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to the Icla da Silva Foundation and help us host more drives, recruit more donors, and aid more families in need.

Specifically, we need to add more potential life savers who are ethnically diverse. All minority segments are under represented and those patients are much less likely to find a matching donor.

With your help we can change this unfortunate fact.

We need to recruit more people like Michael Powell, who registered through Icla da Silva in 2007. He received the call that he was a match, not once, but twice. He generously donated his stem cells in 2013, and then he gave his life saving bone marrow in 2017.

His bone marrow was successfully transplanted into Aunesti Sullivan, and she began her 2nd chance at life on June 2, 2017 at the age of 12. She is doing great and living the active life of a young teenager – thanks to Michael.

Please help us recruit more people like Michael and add more hope for the 14,000 patients who are in need each year. Even a small financial donation will help us give more patients like Aunesti a 2nd chance at life.

make a financial donation

If you missed part 1, part 2, or part 3 of this 4 part series, you can read them by clicking the links.

Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.

Thank you for your support!

KEEPING HOPE ALIVE!

This Holiday season we are sharing four inspiring stories from our patients and friends. We hope that these stories move you and incite you to make a donation.

With donations from people like you, Icla da Silva is able to manage a small patient support program. The program provides aid to patients in need.

Our goal is to Keep the Hope Alive for as many patients as possible. Whether they are searching for a match, or working through treatment, we do our best to provide emotional, logistical, and as often as we can, financial support.

Our budget is small, but we are always available with a supportive ear and a kind word.  We help with logistics by making referrals regarding transplant centers, and recommendations for second opinions and clinical trials.  When we can afford it, we try to assist financially with HLA typing and sometimes, transportation, lodging or meals. This year, we were able to help more than 200 families.  Whether that was 2 nights at a Holiday Inn, or a gas card to get to a treatment center, we support the patients we work with as best we can.

We would love to be able to help more patients, but we can’t do it without you.  Please consider a donation and help us Keep Hope Alive.

make A donation

You may remember Ne’Mya Sullivan from last year.

Mya was blessed to receive a life-saving stem cell transplant from her brother. With so many weeks in the hospital, both before and after her transplant, Mya’s mom was forced to quit work; despite their growing list of bills and expenses. Thanks to people like you, we were fortunate enough to be able to assist the family with a small grant. We are grateful that we were able to Keep the Hope Alive because of donations from our supporters.

“Thank you to amazing people who supported us through our journey and continue to check in. We love you all…thank you most to the Icla da Silva Foundation. You are all so amazing; more than supporters, more like family. Thank you for everything.” -Nekisha Banks Sullivan

One year post transplant and Ne’Mya is doing great. She is in the 5th grade and has joined the cheerleading team. She is grateful for a daily routine without meds, and the opportunity to enjoy her family without restriction. Go Mya!

A single donation can make such a profound impact on a patient’s family. Will you help us continue to Keep Hope Alive? We want every family to get the support that they need in the New Year.

Help us help them.

KEEP THE HOPE ALIVE

If you missed part 1, or part 2 of our 4 part series, you can read them by clicking the links.

Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.

Thank you.

SEASONS GREETINGS!

This Holiday season we are sharing four inspiring stories from our patients and friends. We hope that these stories move you and incite you to make a donation.

All throughout the year, the Icla da Silva Foundation strives to give more patients and their families the Gift of Hope.

During the Holiday Season, the Season for Giving, we ask for your help. The funds that are donated go towards adding more potential life savers to the Be The Match bone marrow registry.

make your donation

Too many patients are searching for a matching stem cell or bone marrow donor without success.

Veronica Depauli is one of those patients. Veronica is searching for her match.

She has a very rare disease called ADO II. It is a genetic disorder which causes increased bone density and abnormal bone growth. Without a matching donor, her condition can lead to facial paralysis, blindness and death. Veronica’s family has been searching for a bone marrow match for over two years, and we have been supporting them in their search.

Although her condition gets more complex with each day, Veronica continues to smile. Despite the many doctor visits, the tests, the pain…she smiles.

We are asking for your help. There is currently no match for Veronica on the registry.

Through financial support from people like you, we are able to host more drives and give more HOPE to the many patients in need of a match.

We want to save more lives. Over the past 7 years, we have helped more than 500 patients find their match. Your donation will help us add more potential life-savers to the registry. We are hopeful that one of them will be a match for Veronica.

give the gift of hope

Please consider a donation and help us continue to give the Gift of Hope.

If you missed part 1 of our 4 part series, you can read it here.

Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.

Thank you.

SEASONS GREETINGS!

This Holiday season we are sharing four inspiring stories from our patients and friends. We hope that these stories move you and incite you to make a donation.

The Season represents a time for giving. For us, it’s about Giving the Gift of Life. We use the funds that we receive to add more potential donors to the Be the Match registry. We are hoping to find that perfect match, a Gift of Life for one of the many patients that we work with.

One of those patients is Asaya Bullock.

When Asaya was just 8 months old, he was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called IPEX syndrome. A person with IPEX lacks the ability to regulate their immune system, they loose the capability to defend against disease. It can also cause the immune system to attack the body’s own tissues and organs.

Asaya often feels pain throughout his entire body. Although he is allowed to attend school, he misses many days due to treatments, or simply because he doesn’t feel up to it. Asaya and his family have been searching for a bone marrow donor for most of his life.

Asaya is African American and West Indian Caribbean. Unfortunately, his ethnicity is not well represented on the bone marrow registry. Only 23% of African American patients with a blood cancer are successful in finding a matching stem cell or bone marrow donor. By comparison, Caucasian patients with the same diagnoses, have a 77% chance of finding a matching donor.

There simply aren’t enough potential donors who have joined the registry. The Icla da Silva Foundation is trying to change this by adding more people to the registry who are ethnically diverse.

In the last 7 years, the time Asaya has been fighting his disease, we have added more than 200,000 potential donors to the registry. Unfortunately, there is still no match for Asaya.

We will continue until we find one.

By donating just $100 you can help defer the cost of adding one person to the bone marrow registry. With your help, we will find a life-saving donor for Asaya and many other patients like him Please donate and help us Give the Gift of Life to children like Asaya.

please donate today

You can read part 2 of our 4 part series here.

Icla da Silva is a 501(c)3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.

Thank you.

Throughout the month of July, the Icla da Silva Foundation is running the Summertime Swab Challenge.  Enter a guess – how many swabs did we fit in the jar?  The person with the closest guess to the actual number of swabs will get to choose one of two fantastic prizes, valued at over $500.  While you enjoy the warmer days and bigger smiles associated with summer, we hope you will take a chance and enter a guess to help a patient in need.

The Swabs

Swabs are a big part of what we do.  When you join the Be The Match bone marrow registry, you receive a swab kit in the mail.  After you have swabbed the inside of your cheek, you send it back to Be The Match so that your HLA type can be tested, registered, and included in patient searches.  Hopefully you will be matched to one of the 14,000 patients who need a transplant to survive. Swabs are about registering yourself to become a life saver.

During the month of July, we are using swabs to increase awareness and raise funds so that we can continue to save more lives.

The Swab Jar

Summertime Swab Challenge

We have filled a 2.5 gallon glass jar with q-tip sized swabs and closed the lid.  Underneath the jar is an envelope that details the # of swabs included in the jar.  On August 1, 2018, we will open the envelope on social media and reveal the # of swabs. Will you be a winner?

A Small Donation

From July 1st through July 31st, you will have the chance to make a small donation* and enter your guess as to how many swabs we have fit into the jar.  All donations will go towards our Patient Support Services program. Based on need, we try to assist patient families with expenses associated with bone marrow testing and treatments.   Items like HLA typing, medical co-pays, transportation, and housing can become overbearing when a patent, or their family, don’t have the savings available to manage all of the costs associated with an extensive treatment plan.

Donate and guess as often as you like.  Share your guess with your social network.  Every donation will help a patient in need, sharing on facebook will help increase awareness about how easy it is to become a life saver, and entering will earn you a chance to win a fantastic prize.

Please enter here:  Summertime swab challenge

* no donation necessary, see official rules for alternative entry.

Prize Options

The person who provides the most accurate guess as to the actual # of swabs in the jar will will have their choice between one of two fantastic prize options, A or B:

Option A:  If your guess is the closest, you could choose (2) tickets to the 2018 Annual Hope Gala event in New York City.  The Gala is our black tie (optional) dinner and dance where we celebrate our recent achievements and showcase a first time meeting between a transplant patient and their bone marrow donor.

You will enjoy great company, good food and dance the night away.  You will laugh, you will cry, and you will help us celebrate the patients who we support and the lives that we save.

The Hope Gala event takes place on October 17, 2018 at Gustavino’s, 409 East 59th Street, New York, NY from 6:30PM until 9:30PM.  Transportation, accommodations and other costs associated with attending this event are not included with this prize award.  Total retail value is $900.

-Or-

Option B:  As an alternative, you may choose a $500 gift certificate to the Brazilian steakhouse, Fogo de Chao. The restaurant is inspired by the grand kitchen tables on the farms in Southern Brazil, where family and friends gather to share the finest and the freshest from their harvest.

Fogo de Chao has 39 locations throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico and the gift certificate is available to use at a location of your choice until August 1, 2020.

Enter Here:

Summertime swab challenge

The Reveal

On August 1, 2018, on social media, we will open the envelope that reveals the # of swabs in the jar.  Will you be the winner?  Enter a guess and you may have your choice between one of 2 great prizes.  Please share our sweepstakes promotion on facebook and ask your friends to enter their guess.

Enjoy the summer!

Official Rules