But one morning an email arrived in her inbox that shot right through the clutter and left her with a sense of clarity about what was important in life. It had been forwarded from friend to friend, and told the story of a young woman who was in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant.

Years ago, Girlawhirl knew of a friend who had donated bone marrow to save a child. The details were fuzzy, but she did recall some sort of a screening that her friend had stumbled upon at a fair she had attended. Today the process of registering in the National Marrow Donor Program is simple and can be done in two steps, from home, without the need to actually draw blood.

Here's how it works. On the National Marrow Donor Program® website, Girlawhirl clicked through to the online registration page where the steps were outlined and any questions she had could be answered. Specifics are explained in detail there but what it all boiled down was to that she had to be between18 and 60 years old, in good health and willing to donate to any patient. From there, she filled out an online form and paid $52 to cover the cost of the tissue typing. A few days later, a tissue typing kit arrived at her apartment, and she swiped the inside of her mouth with the swab. She mailed it back and she was done.

The National Marrow Donor Program takes over from there, typing her sample and keeping a record of it in its database of more than six million potential donors. Up to 35,000 people each year could use bone marrow transplants to combat diseases like leukemia, lymphoma or other blood cancers, but only 30% of them are able to find matches within their families.

For more information on registration or other ways to help the National Marrow Donor Program click through to their website marrow.org