Swabbing for a cause to save lives

By Ryan, March 29, 2016

By Madeline Travell // Organizations Editor 

Gift of Life is a bone marrow registry with the aim of curing blood cancer through donation. High Point University senior Lindsay Katz created a chapter on campus because of a personal experience.
“When I was 10, my cousin Amy was diagnosed with Leukemia,” Katz said. “My family has been running drives since she was diagnosed. When I learned about the campus ambassador program from Gift of Life, it was a no brainer that I wanted to bring a chapter to HPU.”
Becoming a donor is easy. All you have to do is attend a bone marrow drive where the inside of your cheek is swabbed with a cotton swab in four different places. This process usually takes less than 60 seconds to complete the initial registration. Later, the donor will receive an email containing the preliminary paper work disclosing medical history and contact information. Becoming a bone marrow donor does not require blood to be taken to join the registry. These drives are vital to recruiting donors who could be a lifesaving match with a patient in need.
“At least on this campus, I feel that we have raised awareness about bone marrow transplants tremendously,” said junior Jackie Poolos. “I for one am extremely afraid of needles, but I have told myself that if I end up matching with someone I will gladly donate because I cannot imagine that happening to one of my family members.”
HPU’s chapter has been extremely successful in their efforts on campus by adding over 200 people to the donor registry through their first two drives. They currently have seven more drives that are scheduled throughout the rest of the semester.
“A family member passed away two years ago from cancer,” said senior Trish Leach. “By helping find people to join the bone marrow registry, I could help someone find a match and help another family avoid the loss that my family endured.”
The chapter on campus is also hosting fundraisers to help cover the cost of the bone marrow transplants and kit testing. Their goal is to raise $600 and the chapter is already halfway there. The chapter is in the process of becoming a chartered SGA organization.
“Another goal I have is to register 400 people and to find at least one match,” said Katz. “Finding a match is very rare, about 1 in 2,000, so this would be an incredible accomplishment.”
The Gift of Life website stresses the importance of college students becoming donors, “College students are extremely important to patients in need of lifesaving bone marrow transplants because nearly 65 percent of all donors called as a match are between the ages of 18 to 29. This is because transplant physicians have determined that patients who receive bone marrow or blood stem cells from younger donors tend to have better outcomes than those who do not.”
If you are interested in helping reach the goal of $600, you can donate on the HPU donor page: giftoflife.org/dc/HighPointU
If you want to know when the upcoming drives are happening or would like to follow their progress and receive updates, visit their Facebook page: facebook.com/GOL.HighPoint