Villanova football will host its 17th annual Get in the Game Bone Marrow Drive on Wednesday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Connelly Center, Driscoll Hall and South Campus.
The drive is an annual partnership between the football team, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation and the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing.
Through the Andy Talley Get in the Game Drive, there have been more than 1,600 bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants.
The annual drive aims to help patients with different types of blood cancer who need a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. These cancers can include but are not limited to leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell anemia.
Since 1987, the NMDP has connected patients with donors across the country. Its registry now includes millions of possible donors. However, despite having millions of possible donors on the registry, patients need a genetic match with the donor which is difficult to find in some cases.
For some patients, a family member is a great way to get bone marrow. Unfortunately, 70% of patients do not have a donor in their family.
“Coach Talley always started one of his conversations with, ‘How many people in this room have had a loved one or someone they know really well have to deal with cancer?,’” head football coach Mark Ferrante said. “Almost everyone in the room’s hand goes up. So if we could reduce that number somehow and help people have a second chance at life, who wouldn’t sign up for that?”
The drive was started back in the early 1990s by Talley, who was the head coach. It was started due to an ad on Talley’s daily commute. He heard that there were not enough people on the nation’s bone marrow donor registry. With 100 student-athletes, Talley set out on a mission to make sure the registry was longer.
Talley quickly spread the drive from just the football team to a campus-wide drive.
Villanova was able to produce 11 bone marrow donors last year, which led the country out of more than 250 schools.
Sophomore quarterback Michael Benincasa was identified as one of the potential matches during last year’s drive.
With the help of the drive, Benincasa donated his stem cells a few weeks ago.
“I would say that it never hurts to be a part [of the drive],” Benincasa said. “It is something that really makes you feel good. My Grandmother lost her battle with cancer last summer, so, it was kind of personal to me that I had an opportunity to have closure with her in a way.”
According to the NMDP, every three to four minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with blood cancer. Even though many come out to participate in the donor drive, only half commit to following through and donating their bone marrow or stem cells.
“After talking with Coach Talley and Krista Ross (the co-founder of the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation), I think that once people have been identified as a match only 50% go through with it,” Ferrante said. “Which means that obviously there are 50% who say no. So we’re trying to turn everyone into yes. We’re trying to spread the great word of having the opportunity to save someone’s life.”
The Bone Marrow Drive is looking for people between the ages of 18 and 44. Doctors ask for potential donors in that age group 86% of the time, according to the NMDP. Ferrante stresses the importance of being able to save at least one life by donating stem cells or bone marrow.
“I mean, it’s the ultimate sacrifice,” Ferrante said. “To actually donate your DNA, your bone marrow to someone, that’s a huge gift. To benefit someone that you may never meet or might not even know, that’s in our opinion, the ultimate sacrifice.”
