Help Cancer Patients! Spit Donor Recruitment Event at Naugatuck's 5k and 10k Race and Fest by Give A Spit

March 15, 2014-10:00AM

St. Patrick’s Day, Ion Bank Presents Naugatuck’s 5k and 10k Run and Festival

Visit http://giveaspit.wordpress.com/ to visit the blog. Please share, comment, follow, and like. And please spread the word! 

*If you would like to volunteer for this event, contact giveaspit@gmail.com. Volunteer hours given!*

Background:

Give A Spit is an organization that recruits spit donors to help people diagnosed with leukemia and other cancer.

Leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood, kills more children each year than any other disease. Leukemia patients have to receive a bone marrow transplant to cure the disease, but the challenge presented is patients after surgery are weak and on the verge of dying. They need help from everyday people to donate blood or bone marrow to strengthen the body again. To find the perfect match for the patient, Be The Match is asking us to find willing potential donors to donate their saliva, which can be tested to find the matching blood type to match with a patient’s.

Give A Spit was created to continue DoSomething.com‘s campaign, Give A Spit About Cancer. We intend to team up with the national bone marrow registry Be The Match (bethematch.org) to spread awareness and swab the donors’ cheeks.

Our goal is to encourage people ages 18-24 (the age of the most-in-need donors) to sign up with the bone marrow registry. We accept people ages 18-44 though.

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At the Naugatuck’s St. Patrick’s Day 5k and 10k Run, Give A Spit hopes to recruit many donors. All willing donors will be asked to sign a form and will also be asked to swab the inside of their cheeks.

Donors have to be 18-44 preferably, as medical research concludes the younger the donor the better). You'll have to fill out a health form with a driver's license. Then, you'll be added to the registry! If you are selected as a potential match for the cancer patients, you'll be contacted and asked to donate blood cells, which will save the patients' lives.

Note that these donors will be added onto the registry until aged to 61. Therefore, if contacted to be the match of a patient, the contact information should be updated. Also, these donors must be willing to donate their time and blood if found as a match for a patient. 

So bring your family and bring yourself! Have fun during the race and donate your spit to save lives. This Naugatuck Run also benefits The Naugatuck Education Foundation, so by attending you can support two organizations at once! What a deal!

Visit http://giveaspit.wordpress.com/ to visit the blog. Please spread the word! My goal is to reach 500 donor recruits by the end of this campaign!

Sign up for the race at: http://www.naugatuckroadrace.org/

Thank you NAUGATUCK CT!