Brynn Niblock, FHSU junior in pre-med from Hoxie, swabs her cheek as part of the sign up for the Be the Match bone marrow registry Feb. 6 at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
By CRISTINA JANNEYHays Post
Usually Tiger basketball games are a time to have fun cheer the home team, eat some popcorn but students and community members at Feb. 6 game took a few minutes to stop and potentially save a life.
FHSU student health sponsored a Be the Match bone marrow registry drive.
Potential donors ages 18 to 44 answered a list of qualifying health questions on their smartphones and then swabbed their cheeks to be matched with a potential cancer sufferer in need of bone marrow transplants.
Kathy Pyke of Hays knows too the well the importance of the registry. Pyke was at Gross Memorial Coliseum the night of the drive as a volunteer handing out information to potential donors.
Her husband, Tom, was diagnosed with leukemia on March 1, 2014. Family members were tested, and they were not matches. Doctors were also unable to find a bone marrow match on the national registry. There were 6.2 million people in the registry at the time.
In lieu of a bone marrow transplant, Pyke was given donated umbilical cord blood.
Initially the treatment improved Pyke's condition. However, he ultimately died as a result of the disease on Feb. 12, 2015 at the age of 62.
Kathy said the family was rocked by Tom's illness. He was playing golf and went fishing the week before he was diagnosed with cancer.
Kathy said she wishes she could be on the registry to help another family, but her age prevents her from doing so.
"Not only for my husband," she said of the importance of the registry. "I did pray there had been a match. We stayed at the Hope Lodge that was run by the American Cancer Society in Kansas City. There were 45 apartments there and everyone there has someone who has cancer plus a caregiver in it. You just see so many lives being touched. ...
"If this is something that can help somebody, it is just an easy thing to do."
Kathy said she had a good friend who had a family member sign up for the registry, and he was able to donate to someone who had cancer in England.
Pyke said she would also like to see more hospitals participate in the cord blood bank, which is what helped her husband. At the time of Tom's illness, HaysMed was not participating in the umbilical cord blood bank.
Michelle Toogood, BSN, RN, supervisor of Hays Meds Women's andInfant Care Center/NICU, said parents wishing to participate in cord blood donation should initiate the process prior to delivery. HaysMed staff will then aid in the collection of the specimen.
"I just can't express how much people need to do this," Pyke said of signing up for the registry. "It is just so easy to swab test and they could potentially save more than one person's life. It is so easy to do and so important."
If you are identified as a match to someone suffering from cancer, you would be contacted through the registry and asked if you are willing to donate,Amanda McCord, RN at the FHSU student health center.
"Finding the perfect match is essential for people who are fighting this type of cancer," McCord said. "The closer the match the better their chances of remission and beating whatever cancer they are fighting."
There are over 70 diseases that can be treated by bone marrow transplants, according to Be the Match.
Physicians will usually look for matches among relatives first, but only 70 percent of the time are matches made from family members, McCord said.
Statistics also indicate minority patients are less likely to find matches than Caucasian patients. Be the Match is trying to boost minority participation as there are fewer minority participants in the registry at this time, McCord said.
Donating bone marrow is a little bit different for every donor, McCord said.
Most give through a Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) donation. A machine draws blood from one arm, extracts the cells it needs, and returns the remaining blood through your other arm, according to the Be the Match website.
Others give through a marrow donation. Liquid marrow is withdrawn from the back of your pelvic bone with a needle. In this case, youll receive anesthesia and feel no pain during the procedure, the Be the Match website said.
According to Be the Match,PBSC donors may experience headaches or body aches several days before collection, but these disappear shortly after donation. Most donors feel completely recovered within a few weeks.
If you missed the Be the Match event at FHSU last week, you can contact Be the Match though its website, and the organization will send you the cheek swab kit to sign up for the registry.
The Be the Match website also has information on the donation process and a link to make monetary donations to the Be the Match program.
Continued here:
FHSU partners with Be the Match for bone marrow registry event - hays Post
- Human cells in a rat's brain could shed light on autism and ADHD - Kansas Public Radio - October 13th, 2022
- California is poised to phase out sales of new gas-powered cars - Kansas Public Radio - August 30th, 2022
- Doctors Transplant Kidneys to Children Without Need for Immune ... - July 11th, 2022
- The Future of Parkinson Disease Therapies and the Challenges With Stem Cell Therapies - Neurology Live - June 22nd, 2022
- Chemical Markers That May Unlock Future Therapeutic Uses of mRNA - Lab Manager Magazine - May 2nd, 2022
- Jayhawks shine at 2022 Capitol Graduate Research Summit | The University of Kansas - KU Today - April 19th, 2022
- Four researchers named recipients of the University Scholarly Achievement Award | The University of Kansas - KU Today - March 25th, 2022
- COVID-19 directly damages, creates scar tissue on the kidneys, study finds - WDAF FOX4 Kansas City - January 5th, 2022
- The controversy being created about the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19 - Frontline - July 6th, 2021
- Kelly lauds $21 billion state budget bill, vetoes $500,000 ... - June 6th, 2021
- [Full text] Binding of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein | HMER - Dove Medical Press - April 15th, 2021
- IN8bio announces first-in-human Phase 1 trial Update from The University of Kansas Cancer Center using INB-100, IN8bio's Gamma Delta T-cell product... - December 4th, 2020
- Incysus Therapeutics Announces Name Change to IN8bio, Inc. - GlobeNewswire - August 28th, 2020
- Seeing through a forest of SCN2A gene variation - SFARI News - February 20th, 2020
- Trial cancer treatment in Wichita - KAKE - December 2nd, 2019
- Infanticide: Live Organ Harvesting Commonplace in US Abortion Mills - Church Militant - October 17th, 2019
- Kansas Regenerative Stem Cell Seminar - Stem Cell Centers ... - September 10th, 2019
- Stem Cell Procedures | Motus Biologics of Kansas City - September 9th, 2019
- Stem Cell Therapy in Kansas City- Rejuvenate KC | Stem ... - April 26th, 2019
- Hip Stem Cell Treatment | Motus Biologics in Kansas City - January 23rd, 2019
- About Stem Cell Therapy - Kansas Regenerative Medicine - November 29th, 2018
- Stem Cell Therapy in Wichita, Kansas | Joint Pain Relief ... - October 6th, 2018
- Kansas Stem Cell Center Close To First Clinical Trial | KCUR - August 27th, 2018
- Knee Stem Cell Treatments in Kansas City | Motus Biologics - August 2nd, 2018
- Stem cells relieve chronic pain in Kansas City, MO - July 30th, 2018
- Adult Stem Cell Therapy 101, MSCTC - University of Kansas ... - July 7th, 2018
- Stem cells or Knee surgery - Kansas Regenerative Medicine - June 28th, 2018
- Future Fertility Fix? Egg-Producing Stem Cells Found in ... - October 14th, 2017
- Regenexx Kansas City | Helping your body heal itself - September 24th, 2017
- Feared Zika virus kills brain cancer stem cells, new research shows - Kansas City Star - September 8th, 2017
- Shawnee Woman Was Among First In The World To Undergo New FDA-Approved Cancer Therapy - KCUR - September 8th, 2017
- Paralyzed after pool accident, student heads back to college - Kansas City Star - August 30th, 2017
- About Us, Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center - KUMC - August 30th, 2017
- Join Jon Kempin, LA Galaxy Foundation and Gift of Life Marrow Registry for Kick Blood Cancer on August 13 - LA Galaxy - August 12th, 2017
- Regenerative Medicine Market in the US - Forecasts, Segmentation, and Opportunity Assessment by Technavio - Business Wire (press release) - August 8th, 2017
- International Space Station's Crew Restored to Six People - Kansas City infoZine - July 30th, 2017
- Scientists build DNA from scratch to alter life's blueprint - Kansas City Star - July 30th, 2017
- Stem Cell Collection - University of Kansas Hospital - October 30th, 2016
- Stem Cell Therapy - North Kansas City Hospital, Kansas ... - October 14th, 2016
- Stem Cell Therapy | Kansas RMC - August 3rd, 2016
- Kansas to Build First US Stem Cell Research Center | CorCell - August 3rd, 2016
- Stem cell program - University of Kansas Medical Center - August 3rd, 2016
- Stem Cell Therapy for Urological Issues | Kansas RMC - July 29th, 2016
- Kansas Regenerative Medicine Center - October 19th, 2015
- Egg Stem Cells - MIT Technology Review - September 27th, 2015
- Doctors in Kansas who treat or diagnose Stem Cell Transplant - August 1st, 2015
- Stem Cells for Paralysis: First of Its Kind Study - April 7th, 2015
- Topeka retailer honored as 'business of the year' - March 7th, 2015
- Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute Offers Tips & Treatments For Heart Failure Awareness Week 2015 - February 10th, 2015
- Exploring Stem Cell Therapy for Cerebral Palsy | See the Seitz - December 12th, 2014
- Therapeutic potential of human induced pluripotent stem ... - November 5th, 2014
- Advisory Board, Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center - November 2nd, 2014
- Myocardial infarction and stem cells - National Center for ... - October 31st, 2014
- Precise and programmable biological circuits - October 24th, 2014
- Stowers Researchers Reveal Molecular Competition Drives ... - September 6th, 2014
- Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, University of Kansas ... - September 1st, 2014
- Stem Cell History | A History of Stem Cell Research - August 23rd, 2014
- Kansas City MO Resources - Stem Cells: Get Facts on Uses ... - August 22nd, 2014