The Student Nurses Association will hold a bone marrow drive on April 17 in an effort to find a suitable donor for a young girl who has been diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia.
Rorie Joslin, 3, was diagnosed in 2012 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a disease that affects the white blood cells in her bone marrow. The girl is currently undergoing chemotherapy, although a bone marrow transplant would improve her chances of recovery.
The drive will take place in the Carmichael Student Center between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m, Potential donors will get their mouth swabbed for DNA testing, This event is funded by the Be The Match foundation, an organization that has been pairing donors with cancer patients since 1987.
Keely Lively, a Nursing major who serves as the Community Health Director at the SNA, urges students to not just become donors, but to volunteer in conducting the drive as well.
Any participants hoping to become a donor must be between the ages of 18-44, though everyone is encouraged to help run the drive. Students will be needed to educate, screen, and swab potential donors.
“We’re looking for people who are healthy, so we need people who can help screen, to see if anyone is on antibiotics or anything of that kind,” Lively said. “And donors want to know, ‘What does this mean? If I’m a bone marrow donor, what does that mean?’ So we need people to tell them how a bone marrow transplant will happen.”
Since she came to KSU in the fall of 2012, Lively has planned to bring Be The Match to Kennesaw. Besides conducting drives, Be The Match also aids in conducting research of blood and bone marrow transplants.
“Because we had a successful one at my previous university, I wanted to bring the drive to this campus,” she said. “So Be the Match has placed Rorie in our hands.”
Along with KSU’s own drive, several others across the country are also taking part in finding a match for the cause. These have taken place at churches and universities in such states as Texas and Maryland, and each drive is updated on the charity’s Facebook page.
“This is a great opportunity for students to be involved and give back to the community,” Lively said. “We fell in love with Rorie’s story, she’s beautiful, and we’re just trying to save her life.”
Any students willing to volunteer in the drive will have all information and supplies provided for them before taking part.
Frequent updates on charity efforts and on Rorie’s condition can be found at www.facebook.com/RorieJoslin.
