University of Massachusets Athletics
Football To Hold Bone Marrow Donor Drive Wednesday
April 06, 2015 | Football
AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass football team and head coach Mark Whipple will be holding a bone marrow donor drive on Wednesday, April 8 at the Campus Center. Come to the second floor (foyer by the UMass Book Store) between 10 am-3 pm to be registered in the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry.
A simple cheek swab is all that is needed to be entered, and you can help save a life. The testing drive is open to the public (ages 18 to 44). Potential donors are added to the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry.
On any given day, more than 6,000 men, women and children are searching the NMDP Registry for a life-saving donor. These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.
For many of these patients, a transplant may be the best and only hope of a cure. The test is a simple cheek swab -- no blood or needles are involved. The free test lasts no longer than 30 minutes which also includes registration paperwork.
Over the last seven years, more than 40 college football teams have joined forces to help in the screening process. There are 20 million people worldwide who are registered as potential marrow donors. Still, there are only about 250 matches found each year, making it a 1-in-80,000 chance that a registered donor will be a match.
Remember the next person in need of a transplant could be you or a member of your family or a friend.
In 2012, the bone marrow donor drive hit home for the UMass football program. Former defensive back Ryan Carter was selected as a donor match after taking the screening test a year earlier. His bone marrow was determined to be a match for a five-year old boy boy who had lymphoma. Carter volunteered to donate his bone marrow in a surgical procedure that March.
At the time of the procedure, Carter said that while he would not know who his bone marrow was donated to, he felt compelled to help save someone's life if he had the chance.
