“You could be the one.”
Those were the words spoken by Mary LeSueur on Saturday at the Bone Marrow Registry Drive held inside The Pines mall food court.
LeSueur is a recruitment account executive for the Be The Match National Marrow Donor Program, a nonprofit organization that connects potential bone marrow and stem cell donors with people who suffer from diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell and aplastic anemia.
“Each day thousands of patients are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases, and about 70 percent of those patients do not have an acceptable donor in their family,” LeSueur said.
To date about 10 million people have registered with Be The Match — all it takes is a few swishes of a swab in the mouth. However, there is a real need for minority participants, including American Indian, Asian, Hawaiian, Hispanic and black participants.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
In fact, only about 7 percent of the total registrants are black, and that is where Pine Bluff residents Tracy Shavers and Damaris Mims come in. Both women were touched by last fall’s story of Leslie Harris of Little Rock, who found out just hours before her baby was born that she had leukemia.
“I was so touched and inspired by her story,” Mims said.
She was also surprised and dismayed to learn of an urgent need much closer to home.
Shavers, who thanks to a bone marrow donor is a 20-year survivor of Hodgkins Disease survivor, and Mims became aware of 23-year-old Quinshuanita Thomas of Pine Bluff, whose own future isn’t so certain.
Thomas, diagnosed with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria about three months ago, will not survive without a donor.
The national donor base from which Thomas can draw from is small, and LeSueur said, “While it’s possible that a donor can come from a different race, it’s not very likely.”
So now, Mims and Shavers are talking to anyone in the black community who will listen about the need for “everyone” to step up and register with Be The Match.
They organized Saturday’s daylong event.
“You could be the one who makes a difference in someone else’s life,” Shavers said.
Once a registrant is identified as a potential donor, LeSueur said there are a few more steps, including additional testing and a checkup. The final step includes either the extraction of bone marrow from the top of the hip bone or the removal of stem cells from the blood.
Pine mall housekeeper and new Be The Match participant Virginia Jenkins had never heard of the registry or the need for donors.
“It makes me feel so good inside,” she said about her decision to join the registry.
Angela Glover of Star City volunteered her time Saturday because, she said, “This is a good cause.”
Mims said, “It’s very important that we help people like Quinshuanita.”
By noon, more than 50 people had joined the registry, but LeSueur and the organizers hoped to sign up another 25 by day’s end.
“It’s not a difficult process, and you just might be that one person we need,” LeSueur said. “You could be the one to save a life.”
For more information about Be The Match Marrow Registry or to host a registry event, call (662) 403-0091 or go to: BeTheMatch.org.