Category Archives: Announcements

Amit Gupta Needs You (and so do many others)

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Amit Gupta needs your help - be a bone marrow donor

Many years ago, I lost someone close to leukaemia. It was a long time ago and they didn’t have the treatments or facilities that they have now.

But never mind the past, Amit Gupta’s one of the thousands of people diagnosed with leukamia today. He’s of South Asian descent and lives in the US. He’s collaborated with Seth Godin in the past and is a vibrant man with a promising future.

He’s had chemotherapy and the next step is a bone marrow transplant. But being South Asian, he’s under-represented in the bone marrow pool.

His friends and family are committed to finding a match for him and are trying to make the process of finding one as easy as possible. They’ve set up a website with information on how you can become a bone marrow donor. The site also tells you about other ways you can help too.

The marrow donor process is painless apparently. It starts with rubbing a cotton swab inside your cheek. The clinic analyses the swab and if there’s a match (according to the National Marrow Donor Program, the chance is one in 540), it’s all systems go!

In the past, you used to have to undergo surgery to donate bone marrow. Thankfully times have changed and now the process is similar to giving blood.

Amit needs bone marrow from a South Asian donor. But there are people from all races who are waiting and would be very appreciative of your help and support.

If you are in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and want to be a bone marrow donor, you can contact the Emirates Bone Marrow Donor Registry

Sharjah Blood Transfusion and Research Centre

P.O.Box 2605

UAE University Road

Sharjah

United Arab Emirates

tel: +971-50-646-4371

Alternatively, you can join a marrow registry in the United Kingdom, United States, India, or elsewhere. It takes just a few minutes to sign up, and you can be the one to save a life.

UPDATE 16th February: Great news. I’ve just heard that Amit found a perfect match!

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Your Privacy Matters

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Your Privacy Matters

In a world where public increasingly seems to be the new private, it almost seems like blasphemy (or prudish) to admit that your Privacy is important to me. Together with Personal Space and Discretion.

That’s why you won’t find me name-dropping or telling your family or everyone on twitter that you’re a client.

It’s also why my privacy policy states that if you leave a comment here that you later want removed, I’ll remove it for you.

I mention this for two reasons:

1) Bucking The So-Called “Social Norm”

I recently popped into twitter after a few months away and have been noticing some people saying things like “Just off the phone with @NameOfPerson. Great new client”

It makes me uncomfortable…

When you hire an accountant or a lawyer or any service provider, you don’t necessarily want them telling your friends, colleagues and strangers about it – at least not until you’ve given them the nod to do so.

To assume that a client is comfortable being “paraded” seems disrespectful. Even if they love social media, everyone has their own contextual boundaries.

If this kind of thing makes you uncomfortable too, be assured that when you hire me, you become my business. I take your privacy, peace of mind and comfort very seriously.  If you want to tell others you’ve hired me, that’s cool – but you won’t find me telling anyone.

2) Contacting You With Discretion

I have a survey running on this site inviting you to tell me about the stress and health issues that have brought you here.

The survey is completely anonymous – it’s even set up NOT to collect the IP address of your computer.  The response has been very good and I’ve been touched with the level of frankness with which you’ve been responding. You are definitely helping me to shape the future of this site.

Recently, a number of people have been including their telephone number as part of the survey response – I would dearly like to give you a call but as I don’t know your name, time zone or home situation, I am unable to do so.

I don’t know what you have told the people who live with you and do not want to breach your privacy. So I’m very reluctant to call a number and ask to speak to “someone whose name I don’t know but they filled out a form on a stress/health site”

If this was you, please get in touch with me by Email – reeta@reetaluthra.com or Mobile: 00-971-(0)50-1289937 (I am in time zone GMT +4) or fill out the web form here.

In the meantime I want to give a heart-felt Thank You to everyone who is taking the time to respond to the survey – your contribution means a lot.

What do you think – does privacy matter?

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Image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mzacha
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