Last November the Lawrence Tech Chapter worked with its university and community to help save a little girl’s life. It started when the chapter heard the story of Bree Town, a 10-year-old girl currently battling acute myeloid leukemia. After being in remission for 10 months, Bree’s cancer had returned and she would need a bone marrow transplant to survive.

Matching bone marrow, unlike matching a person’s blood type, is extremely difficult, and 70 percent of cancer patients end up turning to the national bone marrow registry for help. Unfortunately for Bree, neither her immediate family nor the bone marrow registry returned a match, and her only hope was that someone would register to donate within the next month.

The brothers immediately got to work to begin organizing an emergency bone marrow drive. Within days, the Be The Match registry was contacted, posters with the tagline “Save a Life For Christmas” were spread across campus, and every available social media outlet was flooded with information about the event. The results were astounding. Brothers worked tirelessly to help new registrants fill out forms and demonstrate how to swab their cheeks. At day’s end, over 200 people were registered, with a vast majority of the Michigan Theta brothers in the mix.

Six days following the drive, Be The Match announced that a match was found for Bree, and she would be receiving a transplant in early January. Though the identity of the donor is kept secret for at least one year, brothers learned that the person was a 20-year-old male who had registered within a few weeks of when the match was found.

While the bone marrow drive was inspired by little Bree, there are many more across the country just like her who are still in need of a donor. The Lawrence Tech Chapter has since been contacted by the Be The Match registry informing them that the drive they hosted was their most successful college registry event in years.

Be The Match would like to connect with other SigEp chapters across the nation and work with them to help save more lives. If your chapter is interested in organizing a drive, you can contact Michael Bush at mbush1@ltu.edu or contact Be The Match directly at bethematch.org.