FRISCO, Texas — Students at Heritage High School in Frisco held a "swab drive" Friday to help a recent graduate in need of a life-saving stem cell transplant. They hope the effort will also help diversify a registry to save others too.
Darryl Dugenio suffers from aplastic anemia. His body does not produce enough new blood cells. It leaves him fatigued and his immune system compromised. A stem cell transplant from a matching donor could help cure his condition.
But family members are not a close enough match. And Darryl is of Filipino/Pacific Islander heritage, a DNA line not well-represented in the bone marrow and stem cell registries.
Heritage High School sophomores Piyush Rath and Sushmi Nalluri heard about Dugenio and decided to help. They organized the Mission Marrow Swab Drive at the school on Friday. Registering is as simple as rubbing a cotton swab inside someone's mouth and sending the swab to BeTheMatch.org.
"It really just struck me as a realization that it can happen to anyone and that's one of the main issues that we're trying to fix," Piyush Rath said.
If someone is determined to be a close enough match to become a donor, the donation can be as simple as donating blood.
"It's actually really humbling to know that people that I don't even know are willing to go out of their way and do this drive for me," Dugenio told WFAA.
If you would like to join the registry, you can find all the information you need at BeTheMatch.org.
A bone marrow/stem cell or cord blood transplant can be the best treatment option or potential cure for leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia, and many other diseases.