Bronx, N.Y. - For the fifth straight year, Fordham University football hosted a "Be the Match" registry, a program geared towards increasing the number of potential bone marrow donors on the
Be The Match Registry list. This year's drive netted 175 new potential bone marrow donors.
Members of the football squad greeted their fellow students as they entered the McGinley Center on Wednesday and encouraged them to be a hero and, potentially, save a life.
The procedure was quick and painless. Participants, who were between the ages of 18 and 44, filled out a quick registration form and submitted a swab of cheek cells using a cotton swab to determine tissue type. That was it.
Fordham has had success in the past, matching three people to donors over the first four years, including Fordham football's own
Roddy Roche, who donated marrow in December of 2014.
The team worked with the Icla Da Silva Foundation to register new bone marrow donors. Wednesday's drive was aimed to assist Jullian, a four-year-old who enjoys, life, family, friends, chocolate ice cream, and music. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with Dyskeratosis congenita (DKC). To be cured, Jullian needs a stem cell and bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately, no one in his family was a match and a search of the current 12 million donors on the Be the Match registry came up empty. Hopefully, one of the 175 new registrants can help Jullian or one of the numerous others stricken with blood cancers.
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.
