Encouraged by the Venerable Cheng Yen, founder of Tzu Chi, the tens of thousands of Tzu Chi volunteers became the core of the donor registry. But because it is popularly believed in Taiwan that one should not extract the so-called "dragon bone water" from the body, early on there was considerable resistance to the idea of bone marrow donation.
慈濟幾萬名志工在證嚴法師的呼籲下，成為骨髓捐贈中心的「基本盤」，但台灣民間對於「龍骨水」不能隨意抽取的觀念，卻讓骨髓勸捐活動初期產生困難。