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Dr. Patricia Ireland, Elmira College Provost, and her husband Alec Ireland want to help save lives. To do that, they’re spearheading an NMDP (formerly Be The Match®) sign-up campaign to coincide with the EC Athletics Alumni Weekend on January 19 and 20. The goal is to grow the bone marrow registry organization’s database of eligible bone marrow donors.
“Becoming a donor means you get to give the gift of life,” said Patricia Ireland.
That’s because bone marrow transplants are used to treat and cure over 75 blood cancers and diseases, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anemia
Increasing the NMDP (Be The Match) donor pool is highly personal for the Irelands. In 2020, Alec Ireland, an Oncology nurse who looked after patients with cancer, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), a blood cancer where blood cells do not mature. The treatment for MDS is a bone marrow transplant, but if left untreated, the disease is fatal.
“It was a hard diagnosis for us,” admitted Patricia Ireland. “We have four adult kids and they were looking it up and thinking the worst. But I was really thankful when we got to the point where he could have the transplant because I knew the outcomes could be really good.”
According to the NMDP (Be The Match) website, only 25% of people find a match in their family.
Once doctors ruled out Ireland’s children, they reached out to NMDP (Be The Match) to find a potential donor with the right Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLAs). These genes tell the immune system which cells belong in the body. Interestingly, blood type is not a factor when matching a bone marrow donor.
NMDP (Be The Match) found a nineteen-year-old who scored 12 out of Ireland’s 12 HLAs: the perfect match.
The better the match, the less likely a patient will suffer from “graft vs. host,” where a recipient’s body rejects the donor’s bone marrow, explained Patricia Ireland. Thankfully, Alec Ireland’s transplant went well and he is on the path to being considered cancer-free.
“Right now almost 99.9% of my bone marrow is the donor’s,” shared Alec Ireland, adding that one side effect is he now has the donor’s blood type.
While the Irelands are grateful to have found such a good match, they are saddened to think that patients from other ethnic groups are far less likely to have such a good outcome. That’s because the pool of ethnically diverse donors is much smaller. According to NMDP (Be The Match), “the odds of finding a match are dependent on a patient’s ethnicity, with Black and African American patients least likely to find a matching donor. Black patients find matching donors 29% of the time compared to a 79% chance for white patients.”
“As a nurse and working in Oncology, you hear all of the time about the health disparity among different populations,” said Alec Ireland. “We can do something about increasing donor diversity. If more people will join the registry, we can close that gap. It’s really important we recruit and get a diverse population into the database.”
The demographic disparity among donors is why the Irelands chose to have a sign-up campaign at Elmira College. College campuses are the ideal population to recruit because they are young, healthy, and diverse. Donors have to be between the ages of 18-40 to sign up and should be relatively healthy. The campus campaign will coincide with the Elmira College Athletics Alumni Weekend to further increase the potential donor pool.
“What is really great about doing this at a college campus is we have students taking the lead,” said Patricia Ireland. “Students are leading and helping to organize the event and getting other students to volunteer to help sign people up to join the registry.”
Joining the registry online or at one of the event tables is easy. Potential donors provide basic health information directly to NMDP (Be The Match) through a confidential online form. They then receive a free swab kit to swab their own cheeks, or, if signing up online, NMDP (Be The Match) mails the kit. The swab kit, which gives the organization the necessary genetic information to match donors with patients, is mailed to NMDP (Be The Match). No blood samples are required unless a potential donor matches a patient in need.
Being a donor is often non-invasive, easy, and free, said the Irelands. According to the NMDP (Be The Match) website, 85% of donations involve no surgery at all and the donation costs, including travel and hospital bills, are covered by the agency.
To learn more about being a donor, visit the NMDP website. Sign up on the website or look for a sign-up table during Athletics Alumni Weekend.
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., January 18, Campus Center
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., January 19, Campus Center
5:30 - 7:30 p.m., January 19, EC Women’s Basketball game, Speidel Gymnasium
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. January 19, EC Men’s Basketball game, Speidel Gymnasium
7:00 - 9:00, January 19, EC Men’s Ice Hockey game, Murray Athletic Center
2:00-4:00, January 20, EC Women’s Basketball game, Speidel Gymnasium
4:00-6:00, January 20, EC Men’s Basketball game, Speidel Gymnasium
4:00 p.m. - 6:00, January 20, EC Men’s Ice Hockey game, Murray Athletic Center
