USC hosts bone marrow drive

From 9am to 6pm on Tuesday, USC students can help save a life by attending the USC Bone Marrow Drive at Tommy Trojan.

The event allows students to register to be a bone marrow doner.

Students do not actually donate this Tuesday; they get a cheek swab to collect cells for HLA tissue typing to see if they are a match for a patient.

The drive is in honor of two siblings, twenty-month-old Anaiya and five-month-old Xander, who were both born with a rare genetic disorder.

A bone marrow transplant is the only treatment option for both, and neither of them have a match.

The drive hopes to find a match for the children or one of the other thousands of patients waiting for a match.

According to the USC Bone Marrow Drive event page, only 30 percent of patients who need bone marrow donations will find a match within their family and six out of ten patients never receive the life-saving transplant they need.

Doners must be 18 to 55 years old, in good health, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be willing to donate to any patient in need.

Doners’ information will be listed anonymously on the Be The Match Registry. Doners must keep their contact information updated at all times.

If a student is found as a match, he or she will be contacted to fill out a health questionnaire and undergo additional testing.