In honor of a W.F. West High School student who is battling a rare bone marrow disorder and a Chehalis woman who fought leukemia several years ago, three W.F. West High School students are hosting National Bone Marrow Donor Program enrollment events to help connect potential donors with patients in need.
Formerly known as Be The March, the National Bone Marrow Donor Program is a global nonprofit leader in cell therapy, helping save the lives of patients with blood cancers and disorders.
The enrollment events are a SkillsUSA community service project for W.F. West High School seniors Will Cummings and Allie Anderson and sophomore Charli Clinton.
Last year, Cummings, Anderson and fellow student Lilly Hueffed assembled and handed out 100 hygiene bags to local homeless people, a project that earned them first place at SkillsUSA regional competition and second place at state competition.
“We knew we really wanted to compete in community service again. It was something that we really enjoyed last year,” Cummings said.
Cummings’ sister, Tess Lund, received bone marrow transplants as part of her treatment for leukemia a few years ago, and with fellow W.F. West student Hunter Wilson recently needing a bone marrow transplant after she was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) over the summer, Cummings and his team wanted to champion bone marrow donations for this year’s project.
“We really just wanted to, you know, be a little light in some dark times for people and help everyone find a match, because luckily my sister did, but we know not everyone is as fortunate,” Cummings said.
Hunter Wilson, a high school sophomore, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) over the summer and has since undergone chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
In November, the Chehalis School Board voted to declare Nov. 22 “Hunter Wilson Day” and encouraged students and staff to wear orange and raise awareness for bone marrow donations.
Cummings and his family hosted National Bone Marrow Donor Program enrollment drives a few years ago when Lund was sick, “so I knew it was something doable that still had a really, really important impact,” Cummings said.
The first of three in-person Hunting 4A National Marrow Donation Program enrollment events was held at St. John’s Lutheran Church on Thursday, Feb. 20.
The final two enrollment events are scheduled for 9:30 to 10 a.m. on Friday, March 14, and Friday, March 21, at W.F. West High School.
Attendees don’t need to sign up or register for the events in advance.
Potential National Marrow Donation Program enrollees must be between 18 and 40 years old to donate.
The enrollment process involves having the inside of a cheek swabbed and registering for a list to commit to the possibility of being a stem cell or bone marrow donor.
“If you are willing to donate stem cells, and you are a match, you could save the life of a person fighting blood cancers and other blood based diseases,” Chehalis School District Public Information Officer Carrina Stanton said in an email to The Chronicle.
The whole registration process takes about four minutes to complete.
“Once you get your swab in, they’ll take your DNA, the proteins in your cells, and they will put them in their database,” Cummings said. “Then, if you are a match, they will contact you for either blood stem cells, which is just like giving blood, or a bone marrow transplant.”
While Cummings said the concept of a surgical bone marrow transplant “sounds scary to a lot of people,” he said that in his experience watching his sister receive 16 transplants throughout the course of her leukemia treatment, “it’s a lot less scary of a process than most people believe it to be.”
Roughly 90% of bone marrow donations are akin to giving plasma, and the other 10% require an hour-long surgical procedure with a few days recovery, the National Bone Marrow Donor Program states on its website.
Of the National Bone Marrow Donor Program, Cummings said, “It’s a really cool program … you don’t pay a single cent throughout the entire process. So if you have to go somewhere for the donation, they cover your travel expenses, they cover the pay for the work that you’ve missed.”
For those who are interested in registering with the National Bone Marrow Donor Program but are unable to make it to either of the in-person events in March, Cummings and his team have set up an online registry for potential donors to request a swab kit in the mail with prepaid postage to return.
“The swabs get mailed to you, you put them back in the envelope and the postage is paid for. You don’t have to pay a single cent,” Cummings said.
Potential donors can request a mail-in swab kit online at my.nmdp.org/Hunting4acure or by texting Hunting4ACure to 61474.
For more information about bone marrow donations and the National Bone Marrow Donor Program, visit https://www.nmdp.org/.
