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Women's ice hockey teammates Caroline Knop '18 and Stephanie Di Pietro '18 demonstrate how easy it is to provide a cheek swab for Be the Match.
Women's ice hockey teammates Caroline Knop '18 and Stephanie Di Pietro '18 demonstrate how easy it is to provide a cheek swab for Be the Match.

Members of the Hamilton community are turning out to join the Be the Match marrow registry on Feb. 11 in Beinecke. Every four minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer and  marrow transplant is their only hope. By 11:30 a.m. more than 50 students had registered as potential donors by providing a cheek swab to identify tissue type and filling out a short questionnaire.   Anyone aged 18 to 44 in good health is encouraged to register. The Be the Match registry will be open today until 2 p.m.

Many believe that patients in need of a marrow transplant can get always donors from their immediate family.  But in reality only one in four find a match in their family. Most patients must go to the worldwide marrow registry, but half will not find a donor match, simply because there are not enough people in the registry

Hamilton Be the Match organizer Betty House ’14, P ’99, ‘06 said the chances of actually being  asked to donate marrow are only one in 500. Contrary to myth, 90 percent of the time donors donate stem cells through a non-surgical, outpatient procedure; only 10 percent are asked to donate marrow.

Michael Garbin with the national Be the Match organization is on hand in Beinecke to answer questions.

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