Marrow drive seeks more donors

By Kristine Gill

kgill@vindy.com

youngstown

Organizers of a bone marrow donor drive last weekend are looking to register 100 more people.

The drive took place through the Be The Match Foundation, an international registry of bone-marrow and umbilical-cord donors. Organizers successfully registered 200 of the 300 people they hoped to bring in, but raised all of the $15,000 necessary to cover the cost of 300 registrants.

“I hate to let that money just go toward 200 people,” said Mary Jean Lowry McCaffrey, who organized the event.

Lowry McCaffrey is a family friend of Stephanie Chimento, 28, a Youngstown native and Warren resident who has had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the past five years.

Lowry McCaffrey organized the drive when she learned that Chimento would need a third bone-marrow transplant as part of her treatment.

To register the last 100 people, Lowry McCaffrey said she’s working with Youngstown State University to schedule two afternoon drives in the coming weeks.

The cost of registering with the Be The Match Foundation is usually $100. With grant money from Be The Match Foundation, half of that cost was covered for registrants at last weekend’s drive. The other $50 for each registrant was raised through the drive. Barbara Nolan, an employee with the Be The Match Foundation who helped organize the event, said each new registrant brings Chimento closer to finding a match.

“Every new potential donor is her potential match,” Nolan said.