'Running makes me feel happy'

Like Max, that's all I concerned myself with when I was his age. Just doing anything that put a smile on my face. As 'responsible' adults, we can be guilty of finding less time to do the things we enjoy. Not Max. He runs, he plays and does what is expected of a boy his age: have carefree fun.

When Max was diagnosed with Dysplastic Anemia, a form of blood cancer, his fun had to be put on hold. In fact, every three minutes someone like Max is diagnosed with blood cancer, and every 10 minutes someone dies from the disease. That's more than six people each hour, 148 people each day.

But a cure exists. Be The Match is the largest and most diverse bone marrow registry in the world, giving people like Max the best chance of survival. They connect patients with their donor match for a life-saving blood stem cell transplant, and give patients and their families one-on-one support, education, and guidance before, during, and after transplant.

But to save more lives, they needed to make more matches. And make them faster. That is where Cisco and our partner ePlus played a crucial role in making sure Be The Match had the right technology to do so.

Transformed connections between patients and donors

With Dysplastic Anemia, time isn't on a patient's side. It's vital they find a matching donor quickly. Be The Match was dealing with such a vast amount of data, their systems could not keep up, slowing the matching process down. ePlus came in and identified their need for hybrid and cloud technologies. Meaning, they could now create and digitize their systems in a matter of hours, versus the weeks it took  them before. Now, they are getting faster results and ultimately saving more lives.

Enhanced donor experiences throughout their entire journey

Being a donor doesn't come without its fears and anxieties, but Be The Match wanted to do all they could to make the journey as comfortable as possible. ePlus identified minor tweaks in the overall design of donor sites to make sure people were given a great experience from the moment they donated all the way through their recovery. Be The Match is now retaining more donors and attracting more people to apply to become a donor.

Crossed tech-boundaries for life-saving solutions  

We have nurtured a relationship with Be The Match over many years now and continuously pushed technological boundaries to help refine their service. That includes providing custom API development around SDN to make sure Cisco and other vendor's technologies work well together. Collaborating with other Be The Match vendors (NetApp and Pure Storage) to develop a flawless overall solution. And upskilling Be The Match employees on the latest cutting-edge technology.

Max found his donor. Three years ago, Dylan joined the registry and proved to be the perfect match. And it's all because of the power of partnership. Thanks to Cisco's technological know-how coupled with ePlus' consulting brilliance, success stories like these are possible for Be The Match.

And you too can help save a life. Be the one to save a lifetoday. For people with life-threatening blood cancers-like leukemia and lymphoma-or other diseases, a cure exists.

Watch the Be The Match Success Story

You too can help save a life as a committed member of Be The Match.Join the registry today, or sign-up to become a financial contributor or volunteer. To learn more about how you can be the cure, visit BeTheMatch.org or call 1 (800) MARROW-2.

Between a life-threatening disease and living a normal life, there's a bridge.

To learn more about Max and Dylan's story, visit the bridge to possible page.