Search for bone marrow donor for Devan

UPDATE 5/18 the family has announced a potential donor has been found for Devan! Thanks to all of you who spread the word & we should all keep campaigning for donor registering, particularly for non-Europeans. This is a very different post. 4 year old Devan's life is at stake. He needs to find a matching bone marrow donor and he has 11 weeks left. The family are particularly looking for people of mixed South Asian-European ancestry like Devan. The procedures for testing and donation are painless. If you go to Devan's web site, you will see the details.

I do not know Devan or his family. But a friend of mine does and he asked me to help spread the word. I really don't know if I am violating the unwritten rules of blogging with this post. If so, feel free to tell me. My attitude is forget the rules, why not use all social media possible if it could save a child's life. If you agree, please help spread the word and widen the search.

UPDATE 5/16 10:45am : some conversation on Twitter about this:

gentlemandad @bill_easterly so is it good aid to focus on one child's needs?

I think @gentlemandad raises an uncomfortable but legitimate question: do I have a double standard on trying to help one family with a tragic situation who is within my social circle (with one degree of separation -- friend of a friend) vs. my activities on this blog to try to help a lot of families with tragedies in faraway lands?

Other responses on Twitter to this stream:

knowgreen @bill_easterly Nothing about that struck me as an aid platform. Maybe add a line w/ link to have people register their bone marrow.

PDTglobal Instinctive human compassion and good aid is not a zero sum game.

The question is should I intellectualize and generalize to the usual areas of debate on this blog, or just respond  to the tragic plight of 4 year old Devan?