Priory to Hold Bone Marrow Registry Drive

will hold a Bone Marrow Registry drive on Saturday, April 2nd from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. The event will allow those interested to get registered on the Be the Match registry, which matches potential bone marrow donors to cancer patients in need of a transplant.

The mothers’ club at the school thought holding a registry drive would be a good idea after two members of the Priory community were diagnosed with leukemia in recent years. A Priory senior, Paul Andrew (Andy) Streiff, was diagnosed in his junior year and fortunately did not require a marrow transplant. Andy is now in remission and doing well. Diana Hartnett,  an administrator at the school also developed leukemia. She found a match on the registry and according to the school's website, was scheduled for a marrow transplant at the end of the week.

For many people, a bone marrow transplant “is not something you think about until you need it,” said Karen Kluesner, a member of the Priory community and the registered nurse who is organizing Saturday’s drive. The Be the Match registry currently has eight million registrants worldwide, but they would like to have 50 million, Kluesner said. Patients need to find a donor who is a genetic match, and even among the millions registered, many patients never find a match. The more genetic diversity available, the more patients get the help of a marrow transplant.

Gigi Streiff, Andy’s mother, said that the Priory community’s support when her son was diagnosed was “just phenomenal.” The school held blood drives for Andy, and other schools where he has friends, including , , and John Burroughs, held blood drives as well. When friends and neighbors asked the Streiffs how they could help, Gigi told them that the best thing to do was to go out and donate blood and platelets.

Those interested in being listed on the Registry should be between the ages of 18 and 60 and be sure that they meet the health guidelines. They will be asked to submit some paperwork and a cheek swab and then must be willing to respond quickly if they are found to be a match for a patient.

The registry is especially in need of donors from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Often patients from these backgrounds have the hardest time finding a genetic match on the registry. The Streiffs are a bi-racial family of Filipino and Caucasian heritage, and they are grateful that Andy had to go through just “old-school chemotherapy,” in the words of Gigi’s husband.

Saturday’s event will be held in the High School Commons area at Priory School. Kluesner calls the event a “smaller drive,” but would appreciate as much turnout as possible. More information is available here.