Spring Break
Bone marrow donors needed
Donor registration drive in Davies Center will be searching for eligible participants
Breann Schossow
Issue date: 2/23/09 Section: Campus News
About 15 minutes and a few cotton swabs later, students, faculty and community members may have the opportunity to save a life in the future.
This chance will come to the UW-Eau Claire campus during the Bone Marrow Registration Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 3 in the Oneida and Ho-Chunk rooms in Davies Center.
The drive will be held in honor of Eberth Alarcón for the second annual Eberth Alarcón Memorial Peace and Justice Series. Alarcón, a mathematics professor at the university, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and passed away in September 2006.
Alarcón was of Latin ethnicity and after his diagnosis, it was difficult for him to find a compatible donor match as he was a racial minority, said his widow and associate professor of English Asha Sen.
Alarcón and Sen were members of a group on campus called Staff and Faculty for Peace and Justice, Sen said. During the first Alarcón memorial, which the group sponsors, they invited a speaker. But this year, Sen said they decided to do something different.
"We decided to … provide people with more information about why it is important to register to be a (bone marrow) donor," she said.
Only three out of 10 patients have the life saving transplant. Minorities have the most difficult time finding a match, according to the event's press release.
In order to do this, an informational panel was held on Feb. 16. One of the speakers at the panel included donor recipient Kyle Buchmann, an alumnus and university staff member.
Buchmann was diagnosed in 2002 with leukemia and received a transplant from his younger sister, Megan, who was 13 at the time of donation.
Sen said that having a sibling match is very rare, but Buchmann was lucky, as both of his sisters matched him.
The purpose of the panel was to discuss the need for donors, the process and answer questions in preparation for the drive.
Freshman Stephanie Schneider plans to sign up as a bone marrow donor at the registration drive and will be going as a group with other members of the Eau Claire Dance Company.
This chance will come to the UW-Eau Claire campus during the Bone Marrow Registration Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 3 in the Oneida and Ho-Chunk rooms in Davies Center.
The drive will be held in honor of Eberth Alarcón for the second annual Eberth Alarcón Memorial Peace and Justice Series. Alarcón, a mathematics professor at the university, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and passed away in September 2006.
Alarcón was of Latin ethnicity and after his diagnosis, it was difficult for him to find a compatible donor match as he was a racial minority, said his widow and associate professor of English Asha Sen.
Alarcón and Sen were members of a group on campus called Staff and Faculty for Peace and Justice, Sen said. During the first Alarcón memorial, which the group sponsors, they invited a speaker. But this year, Sen said they decided to do something different.
"We decided to … provide people with more information about why it is important to register to be a (bone marrow) donor," she said.
Only three out of 10 patients have the life saving transplant. Minorities have the most difficult time finding a match, according to the event's press release.
In order to do this, an informational panel was held on Feb. 16. One of the speakers at the panel included donor recipient Kyle Buchmann, an alumnus and university staff member.
Buchmann was diagnosed in 2002 with leukemia and received a transplant from his younger sister, Megan, who was 13 at the time of donation.
Sen said that having a sibling match is very rare, but Buchmann was lucky, as both of his sisters matched him.
The purpose of the panel was to discuss the need for donors, the process and answer questions in preparation for the drive.
Freshman Stephanie Schneider plans to sign up as a bone marrow donor at the registration drive and will be going as a group with other members of the Eau Claire Dance Company.
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