Rowan University football team involved with bone marrow program

Gloucester County Times/NJ.com, April 5, 2012

GLASSBORO, NJ – The Rowan University football team will hold its fourth annual Get In The Game. Save A Life. Be The Match Registry on Tuesday, April 24 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in the University’s Chamberlain Student Center Pit.

“We are excited to be joining once again with some of the other football programs such as New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Wagner, Maine, Harvard, Temple, Penn, Delaware, Richmond and Villanova,” said head coach Jay Accorsi.

The process is simple and will only take 15 minutes. A cheek swab is taken for the test without using any needles or drawing blood. At that point, you are a member of the Be The Match Registry and will be contacted by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) if you are a match.

Last year, the Profs enrolled 310 people in the registry and are looking for another great turnout. Over 8,600 people were registered through the combined efforts of the 30 schools that participated in the event in 2011. Rowan’s goal for this year is to register over 200 people.

“Join our football players and coaches in helping to battle against leukemia, lymphoma, and other life threatening diseases,” stated Accorsi. “I am absolutely positive that the Rowan University community will rally once again for such a great cause. Get In The Game And Save A Life!”

Rowan signed up 299 and 371 people for the registry in 2010 and 2009 respectively. In 2009, defensive end Matt Hoffman was selected and donated blood stem cells on November 16. Hoffman was chosen as a donor to help cure a 58 year-old man suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Today, the man, Warren Sallach of Brenham, TX is cancer free. Hoffman got the chance to meet Sallach and his family at the Gagliardi Trophy Presentation in Salem, VA that December.

Every year thousands of patients in the United States are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases like leukemia or lymphoma. Their best or only hope of a cure is a transplant from an unrelated adult donor or umbilical cord blood unit. The NMDP has facilitated over 50,000 marrow and cord blood transplants. For additional information go to the website: http://www.marrow.org.

The event will be covered live by Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM and online at wgls.rowan.edu.