Jeff Gordon will be visiting Capitol Hill on September 16, 2008, to raise political awareness of the life-saving potential of umbilical cord blood transplants.  Throughout the day, Gordon and Chief Executive Officer of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), Jeffrey W. Chell, MD, will meet with key members of the House and Senate to advocate for increased funding of the C.W, Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program and for full funding the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI). 

Cord blood is one of three sources of cells used in transplant; the other two are bone marrow and peripheral (circulating) blood (also called peripheral blood stem cell or PBSC transplants).  Since establishing the National Bone Marrow Registry in 1987, the NMDP has facilitated more than 30,000 transplants.  Every day more than 6,000 men, women and children search the National Registry for a life-saving donor.  The NMDP is committed to building a strong network and inventory of high-quality cord blood units available to any patient with leukemia, lymphoma and many other life-threatening diseases.

With the world’s largest registry, the NMDP represents a life-saving, single point of access for patients looking for a matching donor.  Over the past 10 years, Gordon and  The Jeff Gordon Foundation have worked with the National Marrow Donor Program and the Hendrick Marrow Program to support their donor recruitment, advocacy programs and patient assistance programming.