UA Bone Marrow Donor Drive Draws Record Crowd

Kristopher Weatherly

After the University Teaching Center learned that Kristopher Weatherly needed a bone marrow transplant, the UA center launched a two-day donor and education drive on the UA Mall. (Photo courtesy of Kristopher Weatherly & Associates)

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications April 22, 2009

The University Teaching Center at the UA held a two-day drive to sign people up to become potential bone marrow, and will continue with a Web-based drive through the end of the month.

Hundreds of people showed up to be placed on the Be The Match Registry during a bone marrow donor drive held at The University of Arizona, breaking the registry's record for the two-day drive.

The drive, which ended Wednesday afternoon, attracted about 550 people, according to the preliminary count Wednesday afternoon. The existing record for the largest turnout during a bone marrow registration drive was made in New Mexico when 540 people turned out over a four-day period.

"We did well. We pretty much matched that in a two-day drive," said Terri Riffe, director of the University Teaching Center at the UA.

Those who were not able to make the drive can sign up online at Be the Match through the end of the month. Click "Join the Registry" and use the promo code, "uacares," to fill out paperwork online. A swab kit will be sent to you.

Riffe's center collaborated with the Be The Match Registry, the new name for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, after learning that its associate director had been diagnosed with a leukemia-like cancer.

The only life-saving treatment available for Kristopher Weatherly, also a UA alum, is a bone marrow transfusion, but he does not yet have a match.

Riffe said she and her staff hoped that hosting a drive at the UA would not only serve to educate the public about the need for registrants with the national organization but help find a match for Weatherly. The national registry helps individuals find marrow and blood cell transplants, while banking a list of potential volunteer marrow donors.

Riffe said she would visit the school Weatherly's son attends on Thursday to try and register 50 additional people.

At the UA, people of all backgrounds from various colleges and departments volunteered their time and signed up as registrants, Riffe said. About 50 people volunteered to help screen people and to help them fill out the necessary documention to be placed on in the registry.

"The community here has responded very well," she said.

That is crucial to help improve the number of potential matches.

The national registry is checked about 6,000 times daily by people in search of a match More than 10,000 people are estimated to need marrow or blood cell transplants annually, Be The Match Registry reports.

Currently, about 12 million names are on the registry, but the national organization said it is in dire need of donors from American Indian, African American, Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander populations.

"Whenever there is a drive, that means there are greater numbers of people that become registrants," Riffe said. "That means there are more chances for someone who is checking for a match."