Donors Sought to Help Blood Cancer Patients

One local organization isn't looking for Superman or Spiderman, but for everyday heroes who just might save a life.

Deletebloodcancer.org held a bone marrow and stem cell drive at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville all day Wednesday (June 12). The organization is looking for people who may be a match and help people battling blood cancer.

The drive will help people like Marina Peed, a wife and mother from Duluth. Time is running out in Peed’s fight against Polycythemia Vera-- a rare type of blood cancer.

But one obstacle stopping many people from getting tested is misconceptions about the testing and donation process.

Testing is simple. As shown in the video above, it is a process of simply swabbing both cheeks. Donors’ names will then be added to a registry until they are called upon to save a life.

Donating is not very complicated or painful either, according to volunteer Lindsay Evans of Duluth.

“The way that is done about 80 percent of the time is through blood, and it’s about the same process as if you were giving platelets,” said Evans. “It’s about a six-hour process where they extract blood from one arm and then it goes back into the other arm. You’ll be sore for about a day, but then back to work after that.”

The less common way would be performed under anesthesia with a needle into your hip. “It will feel like, the next day, if you’ve fallen from ice skating and hit your tailbone,” explains Evans. “A lot of people think that they’ll be drilling in your bones and you’ll be out for weeks and weeks, but it’s really not that painful of a process.”

Nattalee Cunningham of Snellville was walking by on campus when she saw the sign for the drive and decided to sign up to be a donor.

“I’m doing something that I would want somebody to do for me,” said the 24-year-old nursing student. “I’m helping somebody out.”

The next drive in Gwinnett will be held June 27 at Gwinnett Medical Center in Duluth.

Evans said if you cannot make it out to that event, you can still be tested and added to the registry at your convenience.

“They can go online to getswabbed.org and they can order a kit,” said Evans. “They’ll get the kit mailed to them, and then they’ll just swab on their own.

She also suggests potential donors visit http://www.deletebloodcancer.org to find out about other drives happening in the area.

~ Lawrenceville Patch