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BY LENA WONG

In print | April 19, 2007

In hopes of raising awareness about diseases that require bone marrow transplants and the increasing need for registered donors, a group of Swarthmore students is working with the National Marrow Donation Program (NMDP) to host a National Bone Marrow Donor Registry Drive on Thursday, April 26 in Parrish Parlors.

Students interested in adding their names to the NMDP registry should stop by Parrish Parlors between the hours of 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. The procedure should take about 20 minutes and includes a detailed health questionnaire to determine donor eligibility. Unlike the Marrow Registry Drive two years ago where blood samples were needed, this year’s registration process only requires a cheek swab administered by an NMDP representative. The swab will be used to create a tissue sample that will be entered into a searchable database for future matches.

According to National Bone Marrow Donation Registry Drive Co-Coordinator Laura Wolk ’09, there are 30,000 to 32,000 people diagnosed with bone marrow diseases in the U.S. Although some can find transplant matches from within their family, about 70 percent must turn to the registry. “If a patient is Caucasian, their chances of finding a match in the registry is about 80 percent,” Wolk said. “African-Americans have about a 50 percent chance.”

The large discrepancy in patients’ ability to find matches is one of the focuses of this drive. Rita Kamani ’08, who organized the first bone marrow donation registry drive at Swarthmore in 2005, was initially struck by this inconsistency in donor matches because of her own mixed background. “There are a large number of people [in the registry], but a small number of minority and mixed races represented, so the chances for those people decrease,” she said. Kamani emphasized the improbability of successfully matching tissue samples in certain cases. Often, even fraternal siblings cannot be matched with one another.

Wolk, who is coordinating the event with Martha Marrazza ’09, did not know about the previous drive but was inspired to organize this event because of her own personal experience with the registry. “My brother was diagnosed with leukemia and we had to turn to the registry.” she said. “Race plays a huge role in finding a second chance and surviving, and although he passed away from his leukemia, at least he was able to find that second chance,” Wolk said.

Yet those in charge of the drive acknowledge that students may be apprehensive about the registration process. For those concerned about the pain and risk associated with the procedure, Kamani and Wolk explained that the process of bone marrow removal involves a small, outpatient surgery that is minimally invasive, for which patients can choose either general or local anesthesia. During the surgery, marrow-rich blood is taken through needles from the pelvic bones, and the pain experienced afterward is roughly equal in magnitude to the soreness resulting from a fall on ice skates.

Wolk said that registering with the National Marrow Donation Program is not a lifetime commitment. “You can always remove yourself from the registry or say ‘no’ if they call you,” she said. It should also be noted that finding a match is so difficult that it may be years before a potential donor hears from the NMDP, if ever.

Registrar Martin Warner, who donated bone marrow in 1995, first registered with the NMDP almost a decade beforehand. An annual blood donor, Warner chose to put aside two pints of blood to replace the blood (over a liter) lost during his surgery. His decision to have an epidural instead of undergoing general anesthesia meant that he was aware of the fact that surgeons were inserting wide needles at four entry points in his back pelvis. Although at the time, the surgery was considered moderately invasive, he noted that medical technology has improved greatly since then.

“I never minded the pain [after the surgery] even though it lasted for a few weeks because I knew what it was for, and I recommend everyone who is able to do it to register because it is an easy way to help,” Warner said. Warner and his marrow recipient keep in yearly contact through Christmas cards. Without Warner’s marrow, the recipient would likely have died from leukemia.

Among the many reasons the event coordinators gave for registering to donate bone marrow was the recurring idea that doing so could save someone’s life. “When you think of the few minutes it takes to get a cheek swab, it’s amazing to think of the effect you could have on someone’s life,” Tally Sharma ’09 said.

Aside from “storming” dorms and distributing information, the coordinators urge students to contact them with questions and concerns.

“If you really want to register, but your schedule that day is tight, forms can be given in advance so that all you have to do that day is the cheek swab,” Wolk said.

Wolk asked that all inquiries be directed to her e-mail address, lwolk1 [at] swarthmore [dot] edu.

Martha Marrazza is the opinions editor of The Phoenix but had no role in the production of this article.

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