by Jason Kleymann
Daily Lobo
College students are ideal bone marrow donors, said Fae Jones from United Blood Services.
"We really like signing up the college crowd because they're younger people," she said. "They are going to be around longer and tend to be healthier people."
United Blood Services held its eighth annual bone marrow drive in the SUB on Thursday.
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The drive signed up 57 potential marrow donors - down from 88 donors last year.
Jones, coordinator of the drive, said she does about 50 to 75 drives a year in the Albuquerque area, but she said enjoys the fall drive at UNM.
Even with fewer donors this year, the drive is still a success, Jones said.
Sophomore Michelle Cronoble donated plasma before and said the registration process was much easier this time.
"I spent more time filling out the paperwork," Cronoble said. "Then it was just five minutes to put some blood on the paper."
Michael Serrano, a 25-year-old UNM graduate, lost his mother last November to cancer. Her death inspired him to donate bone marrow, he said.
"She got a donation, but it wasn't a perfect match," Serrano said. "I haven't ever donated blood and wasn't sure about donating marrow before my mom got cancer."
Unlike blood donors, marrow donors do not give at the drive, but get their blood tested to find a match to someone who needs a bone marrow or blood stem cell donation.
Bone marrow is used to help bolster the immune systems of cancer and leukemia patients who have been weakened by chemotherapy.
Blood technicians from both the Student Health Center and United Blood Services took samples of the potential donor's blood on a piece of filter paper and will send it to a lab for testing.
Antoinette Olivera, a United Blood Services blood technician, helped take test samples by lancing the potential donor's finger and placing drops of blood on the testing paper.
"That was the biggest complaint from students, getting stuck for the testing," Olivera said. "The lancets we use are significantly bigger than the ones we use to take samples at the blood bank."
Colleen Wiebelhaus, an administrative assistant with United Blood Services, said testing for bone marrow matching takes into account thousands of factors and is much more complicated than blood-type testing. Many of these factors are determined by someone's ethnic background, she said.
"We really encourage those of diverse ethnic backgrounds to come out and get signed up," Wiebelhaus said. "We're much more likely to match people of the same ethnicity."
When the donor is matched with a recipient through the National Marrow Donor Registry, they are allowed to donate.
Adam Loomis, who graduated in the spring, has helped with marrow drives in the past, he said. He donated marrow in September 2004 to help a 23-month-old boy with leukemia.
"The fact that I was a match for it was really rewarding, knowing that I could save somebody's life," Loomis said.
The anonymous donation was done at Presbyterian Hospital in a process where doctors remove bone marrow from the pelvic region with long hollow needles.
Loomis said he was sore for about a week afterward.
Jones described the pain to potential donors at the drive as being like a bad bruise.
"I would tell anybody worrying about it that the pain or aftereffects are very mild and the rewards are huge," Loomis said.
Despite lower numbers, Jones was still happy with the results of the drive, especially the diverse turnout.
"We had a good turnout of minorities," Jones said. "I think all minorities were represented."
Jones also said anybody interested in signing up for donation can register any time, not just during donor drives.
