Bone-marrow registry kits included inside packets of bandages

New York-based pharmaceuticals firm Help Remedies has come up with a potential solution to minimize the barriers faced when registering as a bone marrow donor.

Some 10,000 people in the US alone need bone marrow transplants each year, yet fewer than half receive them. Aiming to minimize the barriers that prevent healthy individuals from registering as potential donors, New York-based pharmaceuticals firm Help Remedies has come up with a solution: Include registry kits inside its packages of bandages, so consumers can simply swab a small sample of blood from a cut that’s already made before bandaging it up. Launched in February, Help’s new bandage brand is entitled, “Help, I’ve cut myself and I want to save a life.” Accordingly, boxes of the bandages each include a specially designed registry kit with sterile swabs and a postage-paid envelope. When the user is cut, he or she can simply swab some blood from it, drop the swab in the envelope and mail it to bone marrow donation center DKMS to begin the donor registration process. Each package of 16 bandages is priced at USD 4. The video below explains the premise in more detail: It seems a fairly safe bet that most people would like to help those in need of transplants, but are ultimately deterred by what can seem a complicated registration process. By incorporating registration into the mundane process of applying a bandage, Help’s approach could make a real difference. How could your brand bundle two activities together for a similarly gratifying result?