Ladyjacks Hold "Be The Match" Drive
9/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack basketball team concluded their “Be The Match” Drive on Tuesday afternoon in the center of the SFA campus.
The bone marrow drive was held over the course of two days, beginning Monday morning, to encourage students and staff to become registered donors.
“It’s something we’ve been apart of for three years and it’s really become a tradition for our program,” said head coach Brandon Schneider. “Our staff and our players look forward to it every fall.
“Through our research, we were surprised to learn just how many patients struggled to find a match if a bone marrow transplant was necessary. We wanted to bring awareness to that and try to get more people, regardless of race, ethnicity or nationality, to become a registered donor.”
More than 350 students registered over the two-day span, which is the largest SFA student participation for “Be The Match” to date.
Every year, thousands of people of all ages are diagnosed with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other life-threatening diseases. Many of them will die unless they get a bone marrow or cord blood transplant from a matching donor. Seventy percent of people do not have a donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match Registry to find a match to save their life.
Be The Match Registry has grown to more than 10.5 million donors and nearly 185,000 umbilical cord blood units, the largest and most racially and ethnically diverse registry of its kind in the world.
The women’s basketball team will also be involved with the 2014 Nacogdoches Walk to End Alzheimer’s 5K on Saturday, Oct. 11.
-SFA-
