On Yom Kippur, chance to save lives

The bone marrow drive is being held at the celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. Members of both synagogues were given the opportunity to fill out their registration forms in advance to respect their observance of the Sabbath.

“There are going to be so many people here for the holiday,’’ said Evie Goldfine, an adviser for the organization. “It’s an opportunity to help others and to reach out to your fellow mankind.’’

During last year’s Yom Kippur, 331 people signed up when the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation hosted a drive at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley. One of those people turned out to be a match for a 66-year-old man suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia.

Organizers of the drive are hoping they get a similar result this year.

“We believe that to save a life, it is as if you have saved the entire world,’’ Goldfine said. “If you get an opportunity to save a life, that’s an extraordinary thing.’’

Goldfine was the recipient of a bone marrow transplant in 2005, after her stage-four lymphoma relapsed. Her donor was a 22-year-old man studying in Israel.

“I eventually got to meet him,’’ Goldfine said. “How do you thank somebody who saved your life? What do you give somebody who does that?’’

Many, especially members of some ethnic groups, are not so lucky. In the early 1990s, the chances that a Jewish person would find a match for a bone marrow transplant were about 5 percent, Goldfine said. Since then, that figure has skyrocketed to 70 percent, in part because of marrow drives.

Goldfine said the organization is hoping to increase the number of black, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian, and mixed-race people registered as bone marrow donors. They are hoping to sponsor a donor drive on Easter Sunday that will target Boston’s black community, she said.

LaMarche now works as a special projects coordinator for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.