Austin Andrews

Layton, Utah

Bachelor of Fine Arts: Technical Theatre & Design

Leadership Engagement

Bone Marrow Donor Drive

In a two-day live event, I with the help of my coworker sand collogues held a bone marrow drive to find viable candidates for bone marrow donation. We are doing this in partnership with Be the Match, the national bone marrow donor registry for the US and the world. In each live event we swab the potential candidates and send the results to the registry. Then they wait until they are matched with a person in need of a transplant.  

My project came actually came to me through a coworkers history. Our “poster Child” Hayden. He is the son of my coworker who was diagnosed with Leukemia at age of 16 months, and recently another coworker had a family member diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 16 yr. I took it on for them.

Some of the challenge I found were people. People have sever misconceptions about bone marrow donation. They believe they it is painful and that is a durance to donate. Also the time constraint. People lead busy lives. Its hard to find people who say they will find the time to donate if ever called to.

It’s a bone marrow drive, to help rid cancer.

My project not only bring me joy to see others help and step up to donate, but it also shows other people that we all aren’t heartless. It makes everyone human. It brings me joy to see others get excited to save lives.

“Its incredible how something as simple as a check swap can be a stepping stone to saving a life.”

                                                -Percy Talbot