By Sloane M. Perron, Manager of Marketing Communications
Every three minutes a person is diagnosed with a blood cancer such as leukemia. Be the Match is a nonprofit that connects blood stem cell donors with cancer patients.
On Wednesday, Anna Maria College’s students hosted a Be the Match event at the Campus Center. The Men’s Football and Women’s Basketball teams volunteered to swab potential stem cell donors to see if they matched with a cancer patient in need of treatment.
Through Be the Match’s national outreach, over 150 college sports teams across the country have registered more than 117,000 donors. The program has led to 791 life-saving transplants for those suffering from blood cancer.
“I think it’s so important that the Anna Maria community support initiatives like Be the Match. I am always so proud of the students not only for what they do on campus, the court, the field, or the ice, but because they step up whenever they are asked and without complaint,” said Melissa Paulhus, Head Coach of Women’s Basketball, “They know and believe in the importance of giving back to the community and for supporting great causes like Be the Match. To watch them stand up and try to do their part to save lives really warmed my heart and made me feel proud to be an AMCAT”
More information about Be the Match can be found at: https://bethematch.org/
