Fordham Football to Host “Be the Match” on April 27

Bronx, N.Y. – For the third straight year, the Fordham University football program will host a program called "Be the Match", a program geared towards increasing the number of potential bone marrow donors on the Be The Match Registry. The 2015 program will be held on April 27 from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in the McGinley Center Lobby.
 
Over the past three years, the Fordham football program added 569 new donors and  have directly helped save the lives of three individuals through matches who donated bone marrow, including current Fordham Ram Roddy Roche, who helped save a life this past December (click here for the story). 
 
The procedure is quick and painless. Participants, who must be between the ages of 18 and 44, will fill out a quick registration form and submit a swab of cheek cells using a cotton swab to determine tissue type. Please note that by joining the registry you are not required to become a bone marrow donor. The choice would be yours to make at the appropriate time.
 

Thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases depend on the Be The Match Registry to find a match, an unrelated donor who can help give then a second chance at life.
 
Be The Match Registry^® is the donor registry operated by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). They've been helping patients receive the transplants they need for more than 25 years.
 
Now, medical advances are making transplants available to more patients of all ages than ever before.
 
Be The Match^® was introduced in 2009 to meet this need by engaging a growing community of people inspired and committed to help patients in any way they can - by joining the registry, donating umbilical cord blood, contributing financially or getting involved.
 
The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP), a nonprofit organization, is the global leader in providing bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants to patients in need.  As Be The Match^®, it operates the Be The Match Registry^®, the world's largest listing of potential marrow donors and donated cord blood units and raise funds to help provide transplants to all patients through the Be The Match Foundation^®. They also match patients with donors, educate health care professionals and conduct research through their research arm, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^® (CIBMTR), so more lives can be saved.