All you need is Love, But A little Marrow Couldn’t Hurt!

Staff Photo by Robin McMahon

Mortar Board hosted a drive for the National Marrow Donor Program! The marrow donor program was hosted at Carson-Newman Maddox Student Activities Center in Jefferson City, Tennessee from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. February 11-13th. The pain free, fast, and easy initial donor registration only requires a few questions filled out, along with a swab on the interior of the donor’s cheek, all of which can be completed in less than ten minutes.

Joining the Be The Match Registry requires the donor to meet a list of conditions of physical health. As well as being fully committed to attend appointments along with the donation time, this requires thirty to forty hours over a period of four to six weeks.  The registry is in need of diverse donors ages 18-44. For thousands of patients with leukemia or other blood diseases like sickle cell anemia, a marrow transplant is their only hope.

After the initial sign up, when the donor has been approved and a match has been found for a receiver, the donor will be called in to have a peripheral blood stem cell donation (PBSC), which requires a non-surgical, outpatient procedure from which the donor should be back to normal within 1-2 days. Marrow Donation does require a surgical, usually outpatient procedure using anesthesia, after which patients may feel soreness in the lower back, usually recovering within 2-7 days.