A bone marrow donor drive with a happy back story

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Donating bone marrow isn’t something most people are itching to do--many erroneously believe it’s always an invasive, painful process, despite the fact that it can and does save lives.

But sometimes a compelling story is all it takes to propel people to take action. And here it is: Elizabeth Jordan joined the National Marrow Donor Program several years ago to see if she was a compatible match for a friend. She wasn’t, but was called in 2007 to try again with a stranger who needed a bone marrow transplant to combat a form of leukemia. They were a match, Jordan donated, and the recipient, Rhonda Christensen, a Dallas-based computer scientist, is alive and in remission.

Jordan, a doctoral student in education and coordinator for campus recruiting programs at USC, and Christensen eventually became friends. They’re now teaming up to host a bone marrow registration drive this Friday at USC from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Potential donors will be asked to fill out a short health questionnaire and have a swab taken of the inside of their cheek. That swab will be sent to a lab and their DNA noted and entered into a national database.

Jordan is quick to dispel the myths many people have about donating bone marrow, such as it always requires surgery and is extremely painful. Neither, she says, are true (the NMDP offers more information). Also, the donor and recipient’s privacy is protected.

‘The pain for me was minimal,’ she says. ‘If you can handle getting regular injections or giving blood, then there should be no problem. I did it at City of Hope in Duarte, and they make you very comfortable.’ And yes, there were cookies involved.

‘Part of the reason Rhonda and I wanted to get together was to educate people,’ she says. ‘You can really see the impact of being a donor--this woman is alive today and she’s really healthy and happy.’

-- Jeannine Stein