Amgalan Jargalsaikhan and Ally Roehl | Staff Reporter
Posted March 18, 2014; 1:49 p.m.
Published Legacy March 18, 2014

The Lindenwood Student Government Association and Delete Blood Cancer DKMS held LU’s third annual Swab for Sean on Thursday. The drive registered 139 potential bone marrow donors.

Senior Sean Murry and his three younger brothers have a rare form of blood disease called Diamond-Blackfan Anemia. The condition requires a matching marrow donor. Murry, said he hopes this event would find the right donor for him and his family, though this is not their last chance.

“Lindenwood is not the only place you could come and swab. We have couple different churches do the drive for us,” Murry said.

Most students who were passing by the drive stopped for a while and completed the process because of its easy steps for saving lives. If students complete the paperwork and swab, all the information and result goes to the National Registry to help people with diseases. The people who participated will be added to the bone marrow donor database to hopefully be a match for Murry or someone else that has the condition.

“People who wanted to come, but missed the drive could go to DKMS’s website to find the nearest drive,” LSGA President Nikki Napolitano said.

LSGA has over 80 organizations under it, many of which sent one or two volunteers to help with the event.“Without the volunteers we wouldn’t have been able to make the event work,” Napolitano said.

Isaiah Jenkins is LSGA’s events coordinator and has worked the event all three years now. He said the event is growing.“More people know about it,” he said. “The first two years, people didn’t understand what it was or what it was for, so this year everyone has a face to put with it. Most people know or have heard of Sean.”

Jenkins said he has enjoyed working the event and will continue to work events like it in the future.
Going to events like this is good because getting swabbed is the easiest part and even though someone may not be a match right away they will be in the system for years.

According to Napolitano, LU will continue to host this event even though Murry is graduating this year.

To register online through the official website of the DKMS, world’s largest bone marrow blood center, there is no additional fee but optional donations are encouraged.