Chatham Students Team Up to Support Bone Marrow and Cord Blood Donors
PITTSBURGH— On Tuesday, November 14th from 11AM until 2PM, Chatham University’s Love Your Melon (LYM) Crew will partner with Be The Match to host a swab drive in the Carriage House Main Lounge to find potential bone marrow or cord blood donors. Diseases treated by these donations include leukemias and lymphomas, bone marrow diseases, inherited immune system disorders, hemoglobinopathies, and inherited metabolic disorders.
Registering to be a donor is a fifteen to twenty-minute process that includes filling out medical history forms and having a cheek swab taken to be tested for compatibility with a patient. Donors between the ages of 18 to 44 are the best candidates eligible to donate for a transplant. For more information about donor qualifications, visit the Be The Match website.
Patients depend on Be The Match and its supporters to find possible transplant donors to help them continue fighting their sickness. Students from the Chatham Crew will be volunteering and registering to donate during the event. Junior, Rosie Benford, the captain of Chatham’s LYM Campus Crew encourages Chatham students, faculty, staff, and community members to step up to the challenge.
“The Be the Match program helps the Chatham and surrounding community support this important cause. With just a few minutes of your time, you can give someone the invaluable gift of more time with their family,” says Benford.
About Be The Match
Be The Match manages the largest and most diverse bone marrow registry in the world. As trusted leaders in advancing treatments for those facing life-threatening blood cancers, they provide the ground-breaking research, innovative technologies, patient support and education that save lives.
About Love Your Melon
Love Your Melon is an apparel brand dedicated to giving a hat to every child battling cancer in America as well as supporting nonprofit organizations who lead the fight against pediatric cancer. Students participate across the nation on college campuses as “crews” to participate in different events and challenges to step up and help families who are affected by pediatric cancer. To find out more about their organization and how you can get involved, visit the Love Your Melon webpage.