Join the members at Lakemont Swim & Tennis Club this Thursday, July 16, for a Be The Match Registry event in support of Kevin LeCount, board president of the club.
Kevin was recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). In addition to leading the club's board, he's also the proud father of Nathan, a swimmer on the Lakemont Torpedoes swim team (shown in the photo above, with his dad). Kevin's friends and family are working with Be The Match to ensure that Kevin and all searching patients have the best opportunity to find a matching donor for a life-saving marrow/stem cell transplant.
Who: Anyone ages 18-44 who meets the eligibility requirements and is willing to donate to any searching patient can participate.
What: The swab event simply means filling out a registration form and having the inside of your cheek swabbed to have your tissue type tested -- it only takes about 15 minutes.
Where: Lakemont Swim & Tennis Club, 409 Harvard Street in midtown Raleigh
When: Thursday, July 16, anytime between 4:30 and 7 p.m.
"I’m a new patient with AML including the FLT3 gene mutation, which I’ve labeled a 'pesky' leukemia because, after chemo, it tends to come back," Kevin said. "My version of leukemia is almost never survivable without a successful bone marrow transplant and I’m seeking a donor."
Every day, thousands of patients are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases like Leukemia. Many patients hope for a marrow donor with matching tissue type, which is different from a matching blood type. Because tissue typing is inherited, patients are more likely to match someone of their own race or ethnicity. People of all races and ethnicity are needed to join Be The Match Registry.
Joining the registry is easy. Be The Match asks every person who joins to registry to keep their contact information up to date and remain committed to donating if called as a potential match for a patient. Patients are counting on all of us to stay committed to our life-saving mission.
The Be The Match registry is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, a nonprofit organization founded in 1987. Be The Match is dedicated to creating connections within communities to save lives through promoting awareness and education about bone marrow and increasing the number of potential donors on the Be The Match Registry. Only about 30% of patients can find a suitably matched donor among their family members. The remaining 70% require an unrelated donor who can make their transplant possible. Because the odds that two random individuals are HLA matched exceeds one in 20,000, a registry's success depends on a large number of volunteer donors.
For more information, contact Betsie Letterle with Be The Match Marrow Registry at (919) 414-8312 or bletterl@nmdp.org.
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