Footprints Buddy and Support Program, a pediatric cancer volunteer organization, in partnership with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation may break a record for the amount of bone marrow donors swabbed this week.
“If we get over 1,000 people this year, then we’ll beat Ohio University, and we’ll have swabbed the most people on a campus ever,” said Rachel Werk, a 20-year-old UF behavior and cognitive neuroscience junior and co-director of the drive.
The organizations are registering potential donors today and Thursday at the Reitz Union, Turlington Plaza, Plaza of the Americas, and the UF Health Shands Hospital Sun Terrace.
The process includes a registration form and a cheek swab. Registrants have a one in a 1,000 chance of being matched with a donor.
Griffin Plattner, a 20-year-old UF chemical engineering and business administration junior and an officer of Footprints, said 80 percent of the time, donors only have to undergo a noninvasive surgery.
UF has matched 24 students in the last three years of the drive, Plattner said.
“It’s a lifesaving procedure for someone who is in an otherwise terminal situation,” he said.
A version of this story ran on page 3 on 11/6/2013 under the headline "Bone marrow drive hopes to break records, build registry"
