Volunteers will stake out locations all over Athens today from the downtown Waffle House at 2 a.m., to Athens City Hall at 4 p.m. to encourage people across the city to register for a bone marrow donor list in the hopes of finding a match for two sick locals.

The need is even more urgent because former Clarke County school nurse Thomasene Smith and Athens Academy sixth-grader Kajal Patel are minorities, said Caitlin Martin, a representative of Be The Match, the national bone marrow donor registry program. Be The Match, the University of Georgia, the Omni Club and Athens Academy have joined together to host a marathon, continuing today at locations across Athens, to help find donors for Smith and Patel by signing more people to the donor registry list.

Minorities have such a poor chance of finding a match because more than 90 percent of the people signed up for the registry are white, Martin said.

Race matters when trying to find a match for a bone marrow donation, and often, family members arent the best fit, Martin said.

Only 30 percent of our patrons have matches within their family, she said.

Holding the marathon for Smith and Patel will help people of minority groups learn that sick people need them to register for the bone marrow donor list, said Kelin Johnson, Omni Ambassador and former Georgia defense back.

Once people know that race matters when finding a bone marrow donor, more donors likely will come forward, Johnson said.

I think it just comes from a lack of education or awareness, he said.

Potential donors might also shy away from registering because they think the process will hurt too much, Martin said.

One of the biggest myths is that its painful, and thats not true, she said.

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Volunteers work 'round the clock to find bone marrow donors

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