Hundreds of male students and staff at Carleton lined up and “got swabbed” to find out if they were eligible stem cell and bone marrow donors, as part of a registration drive Nov. 20.
The national Get Swabbed Challenge is hosted annually by the One Match Stem Cell and Marrow Network, a subdivision of Canadian Blood Services. For the first time, the challenge specifically targeted male students ages 17 to 35.
“Male stem cells provide a stronger graft for the bone marrow,” said Jessica Stergiou, Ottawa’s co-ordinator of donor management for Canadian Blood Services.
“Also, they provide lower instances of what is called Graft versus Host Disease. Your immune system basically rejects your body. In some cases it can be fatal, so we really want to reduce the chances of that happening,” she said.
The Carleton co-ordinator for the event is Gina Parker, a CUSA councillor who became personally involved with the organization after her brother was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago.
“We realized that he wouldn’t find one [donor] in the world,” Parker said.
“So I figured, why not lend my volunteering and philanthropic abilities to help other people find matches? It’s become kind of a passion.”
“A lot of people don’t know about it and that’s the biggest [reason] why people don’t sign up for it,” she said.
The drive registered 436 people as new potential donors, which beat their target of registering 300 people, according to Parker.
Finding a bone marrow donor is a complex process due to the reliance on genetic compatibility between the stem cell donor and recipient.
“It’s really hard to match patients,” Stergiou said. She said donors are usually only compatible with one other person in the world.
“Last year, less than 0.5 per cent of our registry actually donated stem cells. That’s not just Canadian patients, that’s around the world as well,” she said.
Part of the problem with finding donors is overcoming the myths of the procedure, which has long been thought of as painful and harmful to the donor, according to the co-ordinators.
“How it’s extracted and the medical implications if I’m found as a match are definitely some of the issues I’d have with it,” said Christopher Bonner, a third-year biochemistry student who participated.
“If you’re found to be a match, you’re not really going to say no,” he said.
Parker and Stergiou said this is one of the largest reasons why more people don’t register.
“People hear ‘bone marrow’ or ‘stem cell donation,’ then shudder and walk away, thinking, ‘I’ll never do that,’ and they don’t really give us a chance to explain that it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t take a long time,” Parker said.
However, students registered, despite these preconceptions.
“It makes me feel a bit better about myself,” fourth-year political science student Kadeem Dunn said. “Hopefully I’ll get a call soon to help someone soon.”
“Saving someone’s life is pretty awesome,” Stergiou said.
“By registering, you’re being Superman basically.”
