The Story of Sameer and Vinay by Dragonfly Effect

Using Social Media to Save Lives Robert Chatwani

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TWO FRIENDS, DIAGNOSED WITH LEUKEMIA SAMEER BHATIA, 32 Grew up in Seattle My Co-Founder, roommate, best friend Married Reena in 2006 Stanford undergrad, serial entrepreneur Diagnosed May 2007

VINAY CHAKRAVARTHY, 28 Grew up in Fremont, CA Married Rashmi in 2005 Berkeley undergrad, MD from BU Diagnosed November 2006

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LEUKEMIA Cancer that starts in bloodforming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be produced and enter the bloodstream.

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US ESTIMATES – 2009 New cases: 44,790 Deaths: 21,870

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RANGE OF TREATMENTS

Oral drugs

Cord blood transplant Bone marrow transplant

Chemotherapy DESIGNING HAPPINESS! /

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Radiation

ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA (AML)

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WHAT IS BONE MARROW? Spongy tissue found inside of bones. Marrow produces the body始s white & red blood cells, and platelets.

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For many leukemia patients, the only cure is a bone marrow transplant, with marrow that comes from a donor.

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WHAT IS A MARROW TRANSPLANT? Transplantation of donor blood stem cells derived from the bone marrow or bloodstream (most common approach).

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FINDING A DONOR Marrow infused into the patient requires a genetic match that is as perfect as possible (10/10 match parameters). Highest probability exists within the same ethnic pool.

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Non-profit that operates a bone marrow registry of 7.5 million individuals.

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For Caucasians, there is an 80% chance of finding a matched donor in the NMDP registry.

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Of the 7.5 million registrants,

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20% are minorities.

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But only 1% are South Asian.

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So if you are South Asian…

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your chances of finding a match are slim.

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VERY SLIM

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1 in 20,000

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Sameer and Vinay did not find matches that they desperately needed in the registry.

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To make matters worse…

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…in India,

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a country with more than 1 billion people

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There was no bone marrow registry.

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nothing

what to do?

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Friends got together.

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All of us were quite shocked about the news that two of our friends were struck with cancer.

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We all felt like we needed to do something. Anything.

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What were our options?

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Do nothing.

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Do nothing. Do something.

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Do nothing. Do something. Do something SEISMIC.

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Our simple answer…

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If the odds were 1 in 20,000…

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Then all we needed to do was…

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hold bone marrow drives…

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and register 20,000 South Asians.

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And then we始ll find a match.

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Just 1 problem.

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We had a matter of weeks to get this done.

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THE CHALLENGE We needed to move fast. We needed scale. Failure was not an option.

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First, think small, stay focused. One goal: 20,000 individuals

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GET: SOME STRUCTURE TO THE CHAOS Grab attention

Engage

Make message bold, crisp, & human

Funnel traffic to a single destination

Use MANY channels

Be personally meaningful

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Take Action Clear call to action in all communication (K.I.S.S.) Track metrics & collective impact

HARNESS SOCIAL MEDIA

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GOT ORGANIZED & FORMED TEAMS

TEAM VINAY

bridges

TEAM SAMEER

team lead

marketing

drive operations

education

regional leads

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BUILD THE BRANDS

HelpSameer.org

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HelpVinay.org

Executed, like CRAZY.

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HELP SAMEER STRATEGY http://www.helpsameer.org/strategy/

SOCIAL MEDIA

Widgets Blogs

EDUCATION

Video

How to Videos Fliers Web Links

Pledge Lists

Viral Email

Literature Donor Orgs

STRATEGY

Facebook

Celebrities

Instant Brand

Mass-Micro Mobilization

Corporate Drives

Public Relations Temples

Homes Magazine TV

Telemarketing Clubs / Lounges

Universities Newspapers

Local Events

Posters TRADITIONAL MEDIA

AWARENESS

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REGISTRATION

ACTION

10 Simple Steps—You Can Do It! Let’s find Sameer and Vinay a match! Hosting a bone marrow registration drive at work take some effort, but your drive can be a big success with the right planning and coordination. This playbook is designed to make it easy as possible for you. Since each company is organized differently, think of this as a general guide. The various steps are laid out in sequence, and sample emails are included for you customize for your own use. Replace the text in red with your own text.

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THE RESULTS - 11 WEEKS 470 bone marrow drives 3,500 volunteers 1m+ media impressions 150,000+ site visitors

24,611 people registered DESIGNING HAPPINESS! /

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Sameer = 10/10 match

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Vinay = 8/10 match

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SAMEER SHARED HIS STORY FROM THE HOSPITAL

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Live each day as if it were you r

first

Dear Friends and Loved Ones ,

I can’t stress to you how muc h I marvel at my blessed fortu ne every day, a fortune that all of you had a ha nd in creating. If you look back at my earlies t posts on this website, you’ll recall a newlydiagnosed leukemia patient ne eding a transplant from a gros sly underrepresented and traditio nally apathetic community. Al ong with Vinay, I challenged you all to step up and spread the work; to registe r and respond when called upon to save a lif e. I knew that this process wa s very unlikely to benefit me directly, but I had faith—and was convinced by Ro bert and others— that I had an opportunity to br ing visibility to this issue to be nefit future patients. This worked as hope d, and two other patients found matches through our drives. And the un imaginable happened: I also fou nd a match through your efforts!

So who is to credit for this? Ea ch and every one of you. It co uld have been your email that caused the do nor to register. All of you stop ped to think for a minute, “What if this was me or someone in my family?” an d then did something as simple as sendin g an email to everyone you kn ew. This was Awareness Building, and was a crucial phase of your efforts . Others of you— many of whom I don’t even kn ow but hope to seek out to th ank in person one day—vested yourselves even de eper by organizing drives. You did this at your companies, your colleges, in yo ur local communities, and at your temples of worship. And one of your actu ally won the luck of the draw and got to be my donor. DESIGNING HAPPINESS! /

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So, what lessons did we learn?

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1. Develop a clear goal. There is elegance in simplicity

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2. Reverse the rules. Be aware of how others might address a challenge. And then do the opposite.

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3. Tell a good (truthful) story. Tell stories to connect with human emotion.

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4. Design an architecture for collaboration. Enable others to contribute. Allow others to self-enroll and choose their own weapon.

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5. Design for the ripple effect. A small individual act can, collectively, create big change.

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UPDATE ON SAMEER Our best friend, Sameer, relapsed within 3 months of his transplantHe fought hard – but sadly, passed away in March 2008

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We celebrated his life by sharing his memorial service with the world.

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LIVE GLOBAL WEBCAST

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AN UPDATE ON VINAY Vinay had a successful transplant, but then relapsed Underwent alternative drug treatmentsSadly, Vinay also passed away in June 2008

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PURPOSE…REVEALED Of the 24,611 newly registered…

266 lives were matched in one year alone.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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Most revolutions are sparked by the actions of a few ordinary people.

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Your biggest asset is a clear mind and a very large idea.

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Find the ignition point of a chain reaction, and go ignite it.

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