The friends of a San Francisco man diagnosed with acute leukemia have offered a US$30,000 reward for the successful bone marrow match that could possibly save his life.
Amit Gupta, the 32-year-old founder of Photojojo, a company with the goal of making photography fun, appears to have good friends with the abilities, connections, and means to help.
They've created a website and Tumblr account seeking help for Gupta, they've got the topic trending on Twitter and Gupta now has close to 15,000 followers.
But perhaps most importantly they've scraped together a lot of cash as an incentive to encourage South Asians to register as donors.
The first successful match will win the money, regardless of whether they decide to donate.
This has generated a lot of controversy over the ethics of paying a so called "reward," but Gupta downplayed the controversy.
"I am just more concerned about finding a match at the moment and less concerned about the politics," Gupta told CTV News Channel in an interview over Skype.
Gupta, who was diagnosed three weeks ago and began intense chemotherapy almost immediately, is Indian. While Causasians have an eight in 10 chance of finding a donor in the U.S., the odds are much slimmer for minorities.
"It is a very specific match," Gupta said. "There just aren't very many South Asians in the registries in the United States or even internationally and as a result it's pretty bleak if you are a South Asian and looking for a bone marrow transplant."
One good way of increasing the odds, his friends decided, is to offer cash.
Author and marketing guru Seth Godin first offered up $10,000 to the first donor who is a match for Gupta. Then Michael Galbert, co-founder of the photo-editing company Aviary stepped up, offering his own $10,000, and Jake Lodwick, co-founder of Vimeo, a popular video-sharing service, joined in as well with matching funds.
A website built by two of Gupta's friends -- who pulled a marathon all-night design session to get the project launched shortly after their friend was diagnosed -- offers information for those wanting to help.
It also includes updates on Gupta's health and a personal message about his plight.
"I have a couple more months of chemo to go, then the next step is a bone marrow transplant," Gupta writes on the website.
"Minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help."
The website calls on South Asians to order a simple cheek swab bone marrow testing kit, offers advice on organizing a donation drive and busts myths about the process of donating marrow.
"Modern bone marrow donations are done with a process similar to blood donation. It's painless," the website states.
The $30,000 prize, and Gupta's plight, is both generating discussion on Twitter as users take to the Web to seek help for Gupta.
"The awesome Amit Gupta needs a marrow donor of South Asian descent. Can you help? Do you know someone?" wrote @amyhoy on Twitter.
Manjee Sharma had a similar message: "Amit Gupta needs a marrow transplant. South Asians are really underrepresented in the donor pool. Please help him live."
