Be the Match Donor Drive Sign

Remington College of Nursing, in conjunction with the Central Florida office of The Icla da Silva Foundation, sponsored a bone marrow drive at the College’s Lake Mary Campus on September 14, 2010.

The drive resulted in 35 donors added to the National bone marrow donor Registry.

Mauricio Murillo, a Florida Recruitment Specialist with The Icla da Silva Foundation, was on hand to collect donor information and cheek swabs. “Your students were great, and the drive was a definite success. I hope we can do this again in the future,” said Mr. Murillo.

L to R: College of Nursing students Sherry Muhly and Rachel Canady with Mauricio MurilloThe Icla da Silva Foundation was established in June 1992 after the death of Icla da Silva, a 13-year-old Brazilian girl with leukemia. She died despite the efforts of family, friends, and neighbors to find a matching donor.

Today, the foundation bearing her name is the largest recruiter for the “Be the Match” Registry, recruiting more than 38,000 new potential marrow donors each year.

“bone marrow transplants save lives – and we hope to play an important role in getting more people signed up as potential donors,” said Dr. Mike Lanouette, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Remington College.

Joining the registry is easy: Donors must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and meet certain health guidelines. Signing up requires completing a registration form and giving a swab of your cheek cells as a sample to be tissue-typed.

If you are identified as a potential match for a patient, donor center representatives will ask for a blood sample to see whether you match well enough to be an actual donor. If you are a match, you’ll receive further education and instruction.

“The Nursing Student Association was very excited to help raise awareness of the need for bone marrow donations and to add our students and staff to the registry. We had a great turnout and learned so much,” said Association President Rachel Canady.

The following links provide information about the registry and its patients who currently need help:

• Websites: www.icla.org and www.BeTheMatch.org
• Featured patients: http://www.icla.org/en/patients-and-families/patients-in-need