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RAPID CITY, S.D. – South Dakota Mines students "swab to save a life" Wednesday at Mines' Devereaux Library, for the Get in the Game, Save a Life program, partnered with Be The Match and Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation.
Both organizations partner with over 100 colleges and universities to recruit anyone under the age of 41 to their donor registry for bone marrow or blood stem cells. Be The Match is also the world's largest and most diverse stem cell registry.
The Event
"Somebody donated so that my son could live because he needed that and so this won't help him, but it might help somebody else down the road," David Burnett, Sr., father of David Burnett, said.
The event honors David Burnett, a South Dakota Mines alumnus and former football player, who was diagnosed with leukemia and received a transplant himself. His dad was even there to help run and support the event.
"David Burnett was one of my students back in early 2000, graduated in 2005," Carter Kerk, industrial engineering professor of South Dakota Mines, said. "He and his wife, Cori, [were] both in my department, we loved them. Both always stayed in touch and they were very active on campus. When David got diagnosed with leukemia in 2021, the doctor said he only got a couple of years to live if you don't get a transplant and he got the transplant. The family has been so appreciative that they asked School of Mines if he would be willing to do a donor registry event just to get more people into the registry."
Bailey Johnson, a senior and an organizer for the Get in the Game event, wanted to help with this event because of how close her family is with the Burnetts.
"His mom and dad actually are really close with my grandma and grandpa and so it's really special for me to be helping out with this," She said. "Also David and Cori, his wife, they're also my scholarship donors, which I'm very grateful for. So it's just awesome to be a part of this and giving back to them anyway I can."
It's held at college campuses because of the age demographic. While people can register under the age of 41, they specifically ask for 18 to 25-year-olds.
"We have found through scientific research that younger cells do better with the patient's recovery," Sara Rose Hansen, recruitment coordinator of the Northwest Territory for Be The Match, said. "So the older we get, the slower our cells reproduce. Skin cells, hair cells, stem cells, all of them. So, we really want the age of college students or anybody under the age of 40 to swab their cheek and join the registry so that those people could potentially go on to save somebody's life."
Volunteers
The event was helped by members of the Hardrockers football team, women's basketball team, volleyball team, Alpha Pi Mu (Industrial Engineering Honor Society), as well as just any student who wanted to volunteer.
"It's just amazing that there's so many people that want to help in any way they can," Johnson said. "It's just amazing that people are taking the time out of their day to come help and be a part of this awesome cause."
Be The Match ended up meeting the football team for some training Monday night before training the women's basketball team Tuesday night.
To Register
To register, you simply answer a few questions relating to your heritage and genetics and get a cheek swab.
The cheek swabs contain HLA protein markers that are used to match genetically with patients needing a transplant.
Hansen says that it's important to work on diversifying the registry. It's related to ethnicity, so different ethnic backgrounds have a harder time finding a match.
If you happened to miss the event and want to register, anybody can by visiting my.bethematch.org and hitting the "Join the Donor Registry" tab at the top of the page. After filling out the information, you'll be sent a swab kit which you will do before sending it right back.
Donating
If you match with a patient, you will be called and asked if you're willing to donate.
"It's all based off of genetics and your bone marrow cells are what are producing your stem cells," Hansen said. "So if you match genetically, then the stem cells of the donor go into the patient and it kind of reboots their immune system and takes over their cells and fights those cancer cells and those blood disease cells off."
The donating process 90% of the time is through blood donations, similar to giving platelets or plasma.
The other 10% is bone marrow donations which are usually rare and usually used for pediatric patients who need a higher concentration of Stem Cells. The donor is given general anesthesia and isn't in pain.
Both processes would take about a day to perform for the donors.
Donations from some who's done it before
"Our donors can save the lives of people with up to 75 different blood cancers and diseases. That does include leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia, aplastic anemia, and a lot of other blood cancers and diseases," Hansen said.
Hansen was also someone who previously donated.
"So I joined the registry nine years ago because my dad had lymphoma and he needed a stem cell transplant to survive," she said. "We weren't a match for him. He has nine siblings and two kids and none of us were a close enough match."
Only 30% of patients have a match in their family. The other 70% rely on the registry of unrelated donors to find a match.
"Then a year later, I actually got the call that I was a match for a 48-year-old man in Germany, and I was able to donate my stem cells," Hansen said. "It was totally worth it to save a life. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I actually was able to fly to Germany, meet my donor with my dad, and we stayed with them for a couple of weeks and it was really a powerful experience, changed my life and I know it changed his life."
You can also opt-in to receive updates and the patient can opt-in to provide updates. Every few months, you'll be updated anonymously about how the patient is doing.
The video and full story can be found at the links at the top of the article and here: Full Story
