September 28 2018

Be The Match^®, an organization that worksglobally to provide a cure for patients battling blood cancers and other blooddisorders, today announced a $2 million investment in Halo House Foundation.Halo House is a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas, that provides temporary housingfor blood cancer patients who need to relocate to the Texas Medical Center areaduring treatment of their disease. This investment will go toward the constructionand operations of a much-needed, new housing facility for Halo House patients.

Blood cancer patients who need to travel to Houston toreceive life-saving treatment look to Halo House for support and short-termhousing during treatment. These treatments often come in the form of a blood stem-cell transplant, which may be facilitated by Be The Match.

Be The Match identified Halo House’s creation of the newhousing facility as an integral part of its strategic plan. For many bloodcancer patients, treatment can be complicated and take months or more tocomplete. Halo House provides fully furnished apartments to patients andcaregivers to ease the financial burden of treatment costs. Thousands of bloodcancer patients who need housing have reached out to Halo House for help.

“We are extremely grateful to our partners at Be The Matchfor their support of blood cancer patients,” said Kathleen Fowler, executive directorand Co-founder of Halo House. “Receiving this generous gift  means that the patients and families we servewill have continued access to a comfortable, affordable,   “homeaway from home” as they go through the difficult process of cancer treatment.”

The new facility will offer 33 fully furnished apartment units,a community center, a chapel, a library, and a fitness center. Upon completion,this project will:

• Triple the number of blood cancer patients andcaregivers Halo House is able to serve.
• Provide at least 11,000 days of housing annuallyto patients in need.
• Create a community of shared hope and increasedpatient support by having all the apartments and the Halo House office togetherunder one roof.

“We are excited to partner with Halo House and support ourpatients and transplant center partners in the Houston area,” said AmyRonneberg, chief financial officer for Be The Match. “As we work to removebarriers to blood stem cell transplant as a treatment, this is just one waythat we can support our patients in need.”

For more information about blood stem cell donation and howyou can join the donor registry, visit: https://join.bethematch.org orfollow us on social at @BeTheMatch or https://www.facebook.com/BeTheMatch/.

About Be The Match^®
For people with life-threatening blood cancers—like leukemia andlymphoma—or other diseases, a cure exists. Be The Match connects patients withtheir donor match for a life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant.People can contribute to the cure as a member of the Be The Match Registry^®,financial contributor or volunteer. Be The Match provides patients and theirfamilies one-on-one support, education, and guidance before, during andafter transplant.

Be The Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program^®(NMDP), a nonprofit organization that matches patients with donors, educateshealth care professionals and conducts research through its research program,CIBMTR^® (Center for International Blood and Marrow TransplantResearch^®), so more lives can be saved. To learn more about thecure, visit BeTheMatch.org or call 1 (800) MARROW-2.

About Halo House Foundation

Thousands of people with leukemia or lymphoma travel to theTexas Medical Center every year for life-saving treatments to cure theircancer. They come because care is unavailable locally, or their localtreatments have failed. Sadly, many of those people cannot stay in Houstonto receive treatment because of the significant costs associated with short-termhousing.

Halo House’s mission is to help save the lives ofcancer patients battling leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma by providingthem with fully furnished temporary housing at a very low cost while they're undergoing active treatment for their cancer at the Texas Medical Center.To learn more about Halo House, visit HaloHouseFoundation.org.

###