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When Miami Dolphins attacking lineman Austin Jackson takes the field at Hard Rock Stadium for home games this season, he won’t just be doing it for his teammates and Dolfans.
The 2020 first-round draft election – which played collegially at the University of Southern California and is tasked with keeping franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa upright and protecting against pass rushers – pursues a mission that goes beyond just winning soccer games.
He would like to use the nationwide register Be The Match to draw attention to the life-saving possibilities of bone marrow donors. During an exercise earlier this month at Dolphins training camp, he promoted the cause he cares about because in 2019 he was the bone marrow donor to his younger sister Autumn, who had a rare blood condition called Diamond Blackfan anemia.
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He is especially interested in educating black Americans and other people of color about the importance of registering for bone marrow, as a match can be difficult for people in these demographics to find a match.
As he stated prior to the event at the Baptist Health Training Complex, “I want to encourage more people to donate. There’s a 30 percent chance a minority will get a donor if they don’t immediately match up with one of their siblings or another 85 percent chance success rate that a majority person would get a donor if they didn’t match in their family . ”
Jackson’s sponsorship of this cause isn’t the first time the Florida football community has come together over a bone marrow donation. A decade ago, former Florida State University head coach Jimbo Fisher announced that his then 6-year-old son, Ethan, had a rare blood disorder called Fancomi anemia and that the boy would eventually need a bone marrow transplant. To show their support for their coach, shortly before the start of the 2011 season, the entire FSU squad registered as bone marrow donors – and while none of the players were up to Ethan, some turned out to be matches for other people in need of bone marrow transplants.
An easy way to save a life
Registering as a bone marrow donor is easy and straightforward.
You can do this by visiting BeTheMatch.org.
After you register, answer a few questions about your medical history to determine if you are a good candidate for donation.
Donors must be between 18 and 44 years old.
According to the Be The Match website, it can “only accept” [donors] between 18 and 44 [because] Studies show that blood stem cells from younger donors offer better long-term survival rates for patients. ”
After it is determined that you are a viable potential donor, you will be given a “swab kit”. You hold two swabs in your mouth against your cheek for about five seconds and then send the swabs back – done: You are now in the registry.
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Be a bone marrow donor
Once in the registry, it’s possible that you may never be up to a person in need.
But before you go any further, understanding what bone marrow is is helpful.
Marrow is a spongy substance in your bones. Countless millions of “bound” or “permanent” stem cells, known as “hematopoietic stem cells” (HSCs), live in the bone marrow. The HSCs have four main purposes:
1. Produce red blood cells (which oxygenate your blood and provide the energy to function).
2. Produce white blood cells (which help strengthen your immune system and fight infection and disease).
3. Produce platelets (which control various bleeding functions, such as clotting).
4. Reproduce yourself all your life.
The bone marrow is the starting point for your body’s blood supply.
If the production or any function related to the primary purposes of your HSCs is compromised, your life is potentially at risk. When the bone marrow itself is diseased, the hematopoietic stem cells are also affected.
So when a person needs a bone marrow transplant, they really need “new” healthy HSCs.
Siblings are the most likely pairs of donors; There is a 1 in 4 chance that a sibling will be able to donate bone marrow to their sibling.
But without a sibling donation, people with blood cancer and other life-threatening blood diseases are dependent on the registries. (The U.S. national registry contains approximately 23 million potential donors.)
And as Jackson of the Dolphins noted, minorities and people of color are severely underrepresented on the registers.
When a person in the donor registry is contacted as a potential partner, Be The Match declares: “We are moving fast”. [because] They could be the only option for a searching patient. ”
The overwhelming majority of bone marrow donations – around 80% – are done non-surgically through a painless, non-invasive process called peripheral blood stem cell donation.
Peripheral blood stem cell donation has been described as similar – and no more painful than – being hooked up to an infusion for a few hours, as you would with a plasma donation.
About 20% of the bone marrow donations are carried out with the donor under anesthesia and “liquid bone marrow” is taken from the lower back. According to Be The Match, this could result in the donor experiencing “back pain, fatigue, headache or bruises” for a few days or weeks afterwards.
Jackson’s 2019 donation to his sister was surgically performed in a three-hour procedure that resulted in about a week of post-operative pain.
In general, there are about 10,000 to 15,000 people in the U.S. looking for a bone marrow to match at any given time – but typically only about 5,000 bone marrow transplants are performed each year.
This is why bone marrow donation advocates like Jackson of the Dolphins are so passionate about encouraging as many people as possible to register with Be The Match.
Learn more about the Be The Match initiative and how you can be a advocate for bone marrow donation, even if you cannot donate yourself, by visiting BeTheMatch.com.
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