Community invited to help ‘save a life’
(Green Bay) Students in the Medical Assistant program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College are using their training and skills to help increase life-saving bone marrow transplants.
In conjunction with the Be The Match national registry, the students are holding a bone marrow donor drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, in the Student Center Cafeteria, on the NWTC Green Bay campus. Community members along with NWTC students and staff are invited to participate. Potential donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60.
Next week’s drive is being held to increase the number of potential regional donors as well as the number of donors from diverse backgrounds, according to Alicia McCauley, NWTC AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer, who is helping to coordinate the event.
“The donors on the registry are predominately white, but cancer strikes people of all races,” McCauley said. “By increasing the diversity represented on the registry, there is a higher chance that someone with an ethnicity other than Caucasian will find a match that will save their lives.”
During the drive, NWTC Medical Assistant students, working alongside Community Blood Center of Appleton staff, will swab the inside of each participant’s cheek. The swabs will be sent to a lab for tissue typing, and the participants will then be placed on the national Be the Match registry. Students will also help participants complete registration forms.
“Participants will get the opportunity to save a person’s life,” said McCauley. “Many people are on the registry their whole lives and never get a call; but if they do their marrow could keep a person alive.”
For more information about the NWTC bone marrow donor drive, call Alicia McCauley at NWTC, (920) 498-6941, or Kelli Vander Wielen at the Community Blood Center, (920) 419-3802.
About Be the Match
Be the Match registry is the new name for the registry operated by the National Marrow Donor Program. The myths and facts about bone marrow donation as well as details about the donation process can be found at www.bethematch.com.
About the NWTC Medical Assistant program
NWTC’s Medical Assistant technical diploma is a one-year program that prepares individuals to assist physicians in their offices or other medical settings. For more information, call (920) 498-5444 or go to www.nwtc.edu.