Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson have been awarded a special honor by the Gift of Life organization, one of the largest bone marrow donor registries in the U.S.
The organization decided to award the Adelsons its Partner for Life prize in recognition of their work on behalf of Gift of Life, particularly their efforts to increase the number of potential bone marrow donors via their AMRF medical research fund.
Thanks to the work by Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Gift of Life has added thousands of potential donors to its registry. One initiative included having participants in the Taglit-Birthright project, which brings young Diaspora Jews to Israel for an immersive experience, provide saliva samples for the registry.
The prize was awarded at a ceremony in New York last Wednesday and widely reported by Jewish news sites in the U.S. JNS.org reported that over 1,600 potential bone marrow donors had been found as a result of the Adelsons' work, resulting in 209 bone marrow transplants.
Sheldon Adelson said, "I can't find anything that's more important than saving a life.
"Birthright is an organization that has tens of thousands of participants every year, and if they swab even half of them, there's a wonderful chance they can find a match," the philanthropist said.
Dr. Adelson said that as a child in Haifa, she had been taught the Jewish saying that "anyone who saves a single life, it as if he saves an entire world."
"As the sages aid, not only are we all descended from Adam, we are all like Adam, because we all have the potential to create humanity, and that is what led me to the path of medicine. I wanted to save lives and I did – in the emergency room, in research labs and in clinics to treat addiction. It's an amazing feeling to save a life," she said.
The ceremony included a formal donation to Gift of Life. The Adelsons said they would match all donations collected that evening, bringing the total amount of money raised to $9.5 million.
The event happened to be held on Dr. Adelson's birthday, and the audience sang to her.
Gift of Life was founded in the early 1990s, and its bone marrow donor registry includes over 300,000 potential donors, which have resulted in 15,000 matches to cancer patients and over 3,300 actual bone marrow transplants.
Israeli-American businessman Haim Saban also attended the event and praised the Adelsons.
"Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson have saved countless lives through their boundless generosity," Saban said.
The Adelson family owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom.
