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N.C. Cancer Hospital hosts bone marrow registry drive

Minority donors especially needed

Correction (Feb. 22): An earlier version of this article stated that the N.C. Cancer Hospital was co-hosting the drive. It is the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The story has been updated to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

For students who participate in today’s bone marrow registry drive, a simple cheek swab could help save a stranger’s life.

The Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and several student organizations will host the UNC’s first campuswide bone marrow registration drive today in the Morehead Planetarium.

Organizers are hoping to attract 1,000 volunteers to the drive, where potential donors will be able to have their cheeks swabbed for DNA and submit their names and contact information into a national database.

Unlike organ donations, bone marrow transplants require that donors are genetic matches. The Be The Match Registry, which is sponsoring today’s drive, helps patients find a genetic match through the National Marrow Donor Program.

Organizers encourage college students to register because they remain in the database for a longer period of time.

Betsie Letterle, account executive for the N.C. regional database, said potential donors can be enrolled in the database for years without being contacted.

Registry organizer Lanier Brown May wasn’t always knowledgeable about bone marrow. But when her husband was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia five years ago, she decided to do some research.

What she discovered was astonishing.

“Once I started doing my homework, I saw what a huge need there is,” May said, adding that 70 percent of people who need a match won’t be able to find one in their family.

May decided to organize a registry so people like her husband, who might eventually need a marrow transplant, will be able to find donors. Both May and her husband work for UNC.

“We all want this to be a leading University, and this is something that we can do to show that we are,” she said.

“All you’re doing is saying, ‘If I can help somebody who needs it, I’m willing to do it.’”

Dr. Tom Shea, director of the bone marrow transplant program at UNC Hospitals, said donating bone marrow is one of the most misunderstood procedures.

It’s also one that could save a significant number of lives, he said.

Each year more than 100,000 people are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or other life-threatening illnesses that require marrow transplants.

In a healthy body, bone marrow produces red blood cells. But in patients with cancer, the bone marrow is unhealthy and sometimes toxic. Transplants boost their immune systems and help their bodies fight diseases.

Letterle said minorities are nationally underrepresented in the catalog.

“At any given time there are 6,000 patients searching the registry for a match,” Letterle said.

“When there are so few minorities on the registry, the chances of finding a match is really limited.”

First-year medical students DeAnna McGarity and Rachel Adams said they decided to help with the drive after they were told about the lack of minorities in the database. McGarity and Adams are members of the Student National Medical Association, an organization that mentors minorities as they make their way through medical school.

“February is Black History Month, and there’s such a large number of patients who are minorities, so we decided to help with the drive so they can have strong presence on the registry,” McGarity said.

May said students need to be aware of the impact a donation can make.

“We have 25,000 students and it’s something we’ve never pushed because people don’t understand the importance of it, but you can save somebody’s life,” she said.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.

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