Highland Hospital to hold first Be The Match Bone Marrow Registry Drive
Monday, June 19, 2017
Highland Hospital is holding its first Be The Match Bone Marrow registry drive for employees on Wednesday, June 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Collins Auditorium at Highland Hospital.
The drive was inspired by Glen Harris, a Security Guard at Highland Hospital. His father was battling cancer in 2005 when Glen first signed up to be a potential bone marrow donor through Be The Match Registry. Sadly, Glen’s father died of cancer, but Glen was able to help two other people by becoming a donor.
“Ultimately, it's well worth the small sacrifice for the reward of knowing you helped another person and their family,” said Glen. “It means a lot because in some way, I played a part in their recovery.”
To commemorate his donations, Glen has a tattoo of a tree with both dates inscribed in the branches.
According to Be The Match, every four minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia. Many of these patients need a marrow transplant to survive, but don’t have a matching marrow donor in their family. These patients turn to the Be The Match Registry to find a donor who can save their life.
All it takes is a cheek swab to sign up, and become a potential donor for someone who’s fighting a blood cancer or another disease such as sickle cell anemia. Only about 1 in 430 members of the registry in the United States go on to donate bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) to a patient.