VCU news

By Kelsey Claud

Virginia Commonwealth University students are familiar with spitting for science, but a new student organization has a different request – swabbing for marrow.

The group, Be the Match on Campus at VCU, offers students the opportunity to join the world’s largest bone marrow registry – with a quick cheek swab – to help find matches for people awaiting marrow transplants.

Patients most frequently in need of bone marrow transplants have blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Others may have sickle cell anemia or countless other blood and autoimmune disorders.

BTMOC at VCU, which launched in January, partners with the VCU Medical Center, which houses Virginia’s only comprehensive bone marrow transplant program.

It seemed like obvious synergy to create a student organization to support the work of the VCU transplant program – and others like it – by helping patients find matches, said Laura Gariepy, president of the student organization.

Plus, the VCU Massey Cancer Center’s Bone Marrow Transplant Program already has a strong partnership with the national Be the Match program.

Massey is the primary sponsor of the annual Be the Match 5K Walk and Run in Richmond – Be the Match’s largest fundraiser in the area.

Patients who have received transplants through VCU’s Bone Marrow Transplant Program reunite at the fundraiser and some even meet their donors for the first time.

The new student organization adds donors to the registry and VCU’s transplant program finds the match  performs the procedure.

The Bone Marrow Transplant program has already helped the new organization make connections in the hospital to promote registry drives and contacts for possible volunteers. Some of the program’s staff plan to volunteer at upcoming drives.

Universities are ideal registry-drive hosts because doctors request donors between the ages of 18 and 44 that are in generally good health. Since VCU has thousands of people in that age bracket, a student chapter of Be the Match made perfect sense.

“Another thing that makes our campus chapter special is that VCU is well suited to diversify the registry,” Gariepy said. “Patients are most likely to find a match with someone who shares their ethnic background. We’re excited to be somewhere as vibrantly diverse as VCU, where we can help increase the likelihood that patients of all races and ethnicities in need of a match can find one.”

“Be the Match makes the entire process very easy on the donor,” said Bridget Dillon, who joined the registry in 2009 and became a bone marrow donor in 2011. Dillon is currently secretary of Be the Match on Campus at VCU. “I am thankful for the opportunity to show others the importance of joining the registry.”

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