The Gift of Life Drive outside the Student Union Nov.18 on the Edinburg campus. Diego Montano / Vaquero Radio
The American Medical Student Association at UTRGV hosted a Gift of Life drive that brought an international blood stem cell and marrow registry Nov. 18 to the Edinburg campus.
The event invited students to learn about the donation process, swab on site and take the first step toward becoming potential life-saving donors.
President of the American Medical Student Association and biology senior Karen Alanis said the purpose behind the event was to find donors.
“What this aims at doing is finding donors to help save people that have different types of blood cancers, such as leukemias and lymphomas and things like that,” Alanis said.
She said increasing participation among younger donors is essential since a match can mean the difference between life and death.
AMSA Vice President, biology and medical humanities junior, Rida Shareef said matching is rare.
“For patients from minority communities, their odds are even lower due to underrepresentation in the registry. But by hosting this drive at UTRGV, we’re giving our students the opportunity to change those odds,” Shareef said.
Alanis and Shareef both said representation matters, especially in regions with large Hispanic populations.
Oscar Cazares, a graduate student in the master of Science and Criminal Justice accelerated online program. Who has been a longtime volunteer was also present.
“I’ve been doing this for years, so it’s nice to come back to the community to talk to different individuals about the circumstances revolving around marrow registry donation because Hispanics they do have a low rate of registry compared to other ethnicities,” Cazares said.
He said speaking directly with students helps break misconceptions and encourages more people to register.
Both the president and vice president of UTRGV AMSA say each new donor increases the chance that a patient battling leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia, or other genetic disorders might one day find their life-saving match.
For more information, visit @amsa.rgv on Instagram
