NHS Peer Leadership To Conduct Bone Marrow Registry Drive

Newtown High School’s Peer Leadership group has once again scheduled a bone marrow drive at the school. This year’s drive is scheduled for Monday, May 21, from 8 am to 2:30 pm in the school’s auditorium.

As one of the executive officers of Peer Leadership and a junior at the school, Gracie Whitaker said representatives from the National Marrow Donor Program’s Be The Match Registry will be in attendance during the event, working to register possible donors.

“It’s really easy,” said Gracie about the registration process. “All you have to do is swab your cheek.”

By completing a registration form and swabbing the inside of the cheek in four different areas, possible donors are matched up with patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases.

“They need more people on the registry, and the more people that know about it the better,” said Gracie.

NHS Guidance Counselor Brett Nichols and teacher Vivian Sheen are Peer Leadership’s advisors.

Anyone who is unable to attend the bone marrow registry drive can also register online at www.Marrow.org. The organization will send a kit to perform a cheek swab at home and then send the kit back to the National Marrow Donor Program.