By: Mahita Gajanan / Staff Writer

Posted on 30. Mar, 2012 in News

For one Pitt alumnus, a simple cheek swab was enough to begin a process that would eventually help save a childs life.

In 2010, Jenna Tamburro, then a sophomore, registered at Pitts first annual bone marrow drive sponsored by the Nursing Student Association through DKMS, a bone marrow donation center.

The next year, Tamburro found out she was a potential match for a cancer patient, and after some blood work and a physical, discovered that her bone marrow was suitable to be transplanted into a patient.

This year, NSA will hold its third bone marrow drive with DKMS on April 2 and 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the William Pitt Union. Nursing students Rebecca Sponberg, Lindsey Pretsch and Jarae Payne organized the event.

At the drive, students who are interested in donating bone marrow will have a nurse swab the inside of their cheek with a cotton swab. The interior lining of the cheek provides a persons human leukocyte antigen, a protein on the bodys cells that allows the immune system to recognize the cells as its own, said Sponberg, the vice president of NSA. This test will allow potential candidates to find out if they are eligible to donate bone marrow.

Its important that the donors HLA matches the recipients HLA so the immune system will accept it, Sponberg, a sophomore, said.

Sponberg said that in the past two years, 604 students have registered as donors. Out of the 604, 19 students have been contacted as actual matches and 6 of the 19 have gone through the marrow donation process. None of the organizers could estimate how many people they are expecting to register this year.

I thought it was so crazy that I got matched, Tamburro, who now works at Phipps Conservatory, said. I was shocked when it happened, but then actually really excited.

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Nursing Student Association hosts bone marrow drive

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