Today (March 27), St. Clair’s Student Representative Council (SRC) – in partnership with the Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association – is staging the college’s annual Swabbing Clinic to seek prospective donors to the national stem-cell/bone-marrow registry.
From 9:30 a.m. to 3-ish p.m., a clinic is set up in the SRC Marketplace (far west end of the cafeteria) to register students and staff.
In addition to some very basic personal and health info (including your provincial health card data), all that’s involved is scraping the inside of your cheek with a Q-Tip-like swab to capture a few cells for analysis.
If you prove to be a preliminary match, you might be contacted in the future for more detailed testing to determine if your stem-cell/bone-marrow donation could prove to be life-saving for one of the thousands of Canadians suffering from blood-related and genetic diseases.
Prospective registrants must be between 17 and 35 years of age. (Sorry, older folks, your bone marrow declines in potency after that age-span.)
Also, males are especially encouraged to register, because there’s a gender disparity in the national and international systems at the moment.
Non-Caucasians are also sought after, because those of Asian and African ancestry are currently under-represented in the registries … But, unfortunately, our many international students are not eligible to participate due to both national and international protocols associated with the registries.
To encourage volunteerism, the SRC will be raffling away two fancy dinners-for-two at the college’s Eatery 101 as part of the Swabbing Clinic.
St. Clairians, historically, have turned out in droves for these clinics. Last year, the Katelyn Bedard Association praised the college, saying that the turn-out of 555 swabbers was the largest, single-day registration that it had ever conducted … and, indeed, that the six-hour turn-out had exceeded all of the swabs it had collected in the region during the previous year!
It’s important to note, too, that this is a community-wide event. Students and staff are encouraged to share information about the clinic with family and friends, to see if they might be interested in dropping by the college to be swabbed.
THIS YEAR’S “MOTIVATOR”
During the past several clinics, the Katelyn Bedard Association has fostered involvement by “putting a personal face” on the need for bone-marrow/stem-cell donation.
This year’s event strives to help Zoe Dudzianiec and children like her.
The two-and-a-half-year-old has been diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan Anemia, a very rare genetic disorder affecting less than 1,000 patients worldwide. It is a type of marrow failure in which the bone marrow does not make enough red blood cells.
Zoe's treatment plan, at the moment, is chelation therapy (oral in the morning, and ten-hour nightly infusion), and chronic blood transfusions. Currently, she is receiving blood every two weeks.
This is becoming too much for her – and the next treatment option is a stem cell/bone marrow transplant.
At this time, she needs to rely on the generosity of a stranger to help save her life.
Swabbing Clinic participants can help Zoe, as well hundreds of Canadians who are looking for their match. You may be the only person in the world who could save a special someone’s life, like Zoe.
If you can’t attend Tuesday’s campus clinic, you can have a swab kit sent to your home by registering online: https://blood.ca/en/stem-cells
For more information, contact the Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association by visiting www.givemarrow.net, or call 519-564-4119. You can also contact Canadian Blood Services at 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283), or visit https://blood.ca/en/stem-cells
UPDATE: One hundred and forty-eight individuals were swabbed as new registry participants during the 2018 clinic.
