Football hosts Bone Marrow Drive
On any given day, more than 6,000 men, women and children are searching the NMDP Registry for a life-saving donor. These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant. For many of these patients, a transplant may be the best and only hope of a cure. The test is a simple cheek swab -- no blood or needles are involved.
Northeastern is one of five CAA Football schools and one of nine schools on the east coast to take part in this campaign. The Huskies’ event took place at Solomon Court, and with the help of the football team, over 400 people signed up to get tested and become potential donors.
The event was organized by Northeastern football administrative assistant Sarah Gigantino and she was assisted by the entire football team, especially Jon Jeune, Yaroslav Mukha, Jay Bornstein, Cord Parks, Brian Mandeville and David Racca, whose efforts to recruit people to sign up helped make the event a success. In addition, Don Smith, the chief operating officer of Fly Private, a private jet company in Hingham, Mass., aided in helping recruit people to come in and sign up.
“[The event] was an amazing success,” said Smith, who is a major advocate of the bone marrow donor program. “The football program did an amazing job of recruiting people. The student population recognized how they can truly help others. We look forward to working with the football program, Husky athletics, and the faculty and staff at Northeastern again next year.”
More information on the NMDP can be found at Marrow.org.
April 11, 2008
Boston, MAThe Northeastern University football team hosted a Bone Marrow Drive on Thursday, April 10 to help the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) find possible donors for patients in need of transplants.
