With a just a swab of your cheek, you could help save a life.
On Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Bone Marrow Donor Drive will be held at three different locations across campus.
Students can register to join the national bone marrow database at any of the tables on the Plaza of the Americas, the North Lawn or Turlington Plaza, said Christie Atchison, co-coordinator of the event.
Students must give a cheek swab and sign a consent form to register. They must also be in good health and over the age of 18.
Cheek swabs will be sent to the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation to be analyzed, placed in the database and matched with transplant recipients in need of bone marrow.
Gift of Life is an associate donor registry of the National Bone Marrow Donor Program and a participating member of the worldwide registry Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide, according to the organization’s website.
It is also the first registry to ever use cheek swabs to test donors on a large scale at recruitment drives, according to the website. Gift of Life is funded and directed by an actual transplant recipient.
UF Hillel and Shands Footprints are the local organizers of the event. Footprints is a support system for children in the oncology, transplant and immunology units of Shands at UF. Many of these children are currently awaiting a bone marrow transplant, Atchison said.
Atchison and Erica Sokol both volunteer for Footprints and came up with the idea to host a donor drive on campus.
“Erica and I decided this would be a good way for Footprints to really do something that could directly affect our buddies,” Atchison said.
Jeff Kaplan, the program director at Hillel, helped with the planning and resources for the event.
“Registering is simple and donating is an in-and-out procedure that will directly save someone’s life,” Atchison said.
This is the first event of its kind that the coordinators hope to put on annually from here on out.
There will also be a small raffle aimed at raising funds for Footprints. Funds will go toward gift baskets and transportation for families of patients who do not live close to Shands, Atchison said. Tickets will be sold for $1.
Atchison and Sokol are planning to have about 80 volunteers at the drive, and their goal is to register 1,300 people as donors.
Shayna Brant, UF student, said she is planning to participate in the donor drive.
“To think I could play such a big part in saving someone’s life is amazing,” Brant said. “I don’t see a reason not to take five minutes out of my day to register.”
