GET IN THE GAME – School of Nursing, football, and volleyball team up for a great cause

Did you know that 70% of patients needing a blood stem cell transplant do not have a fully matched donor in their family? Instead, they depend on the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to find an unrelated donor. 

The Norwich University football team, volleyball team, and School of Nursing partnered with NMDP to participate in the Get In The Game program. So far, the program has been held at over 250 colleges across the country, registered 155,000 potential donors, and successfully matched more than 1,000 donors. The on-campus event was a complete success with over 250 Norwich University students adding their names to the National Marrow Donor Program registry to become potential donors!

“Our nursing students live the Norwich guiding value ‘service to others before self’ on a daily basis and coming together to support the NMDP is just another example,” explained Norwich University Director of the School of Nursing Dr. Jessica Wood. “I am very proud of all our student, from nursing students to football and volleyball players, who helped raise awareness of this vital need.”

Once someone is registered, they are registered for life, but there is never an obligation to donate if they are matched. Each year approximately 18,000 people across the United States are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness for which a stem cell transplant from a donor is the best treatment option. Unfortunately, only about 30% of those patients have a family member who is the best match. Over 12,000 people each year desperately wait to find an unrelated donor. 

“The National Marrow Donor Program has the ability to help so many people,” stated Norwich University Head football coach Bill Russell. “I am proud of our players and coaches for jumping at the opportunity to get involved with Get In The Game and we are thrilled to team up with the volleyball team and the School of Nursing to bring this event to campus. Norwich preaches ‘service to others before self’ and this is a great opportunity to live one of our guiding values.”
 

Programs like those held outside of Wise Campus Center not only register potential donors, but also help to raise awareness of the process of the often-misunderstood stem cell transplant procedure. If a match is found, additional testing will be necessary to confirm that a transplant is likely to be successful. If the donor needs to travel to one of the specialized facilities that collects stem cells, the travel and expense is covered by NMDP. The donation procedure has become much simpler of the past few decades and 90% of the time the stem cells needed for the transplant are taken from the blood. The nonsurgical procedure is very similar to blood donations. Often times, the misconceptions of the procedure is the biggest hurdle to people choosing to register.

To learn more about this program, or how you can become involved, simply go to https://bethematch.org/. 

***

About Get In The Game
A program that utilizes the power of collegiate athletics to educate and enroll blood stem cell donors to the NMDP Registry℠. https://college.bethematch.org/get-in-the-game/ 

About Norwich University
Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in baccalaureate and graduate degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).  www.norwich.edu