By DHEC Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and Be The Match

What impact or difference could a Q-tip have on the world? Answer- FIGHT CANCER!

Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer. By the time the blog post is complete, eight people will have been diagnosed by a doctor they never planned to see with a disease they never thought would impact their life. Each day 480 people are diagnosed with various blood cancers/blood disorders including leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia and sickle cell anemia.

1,500 South Carolinians each year are part of these sobering statistics. Half of these 1,500 patients will need a bone marrow transplant. This transplant is their last and (and in many cases) only hope for survival. Be The Match supports these patients in their search for a marrow donor through the national marrow registry.

You have the chance to partner with the Q-tip to fight cancer. Joining the Be The Match registry is as easy as filling out a form and swabbing your cheek with a  . . . wait for it . . . Q-TIP.

You will join a list of over 12 million people who are willing to help if they are called (which is only about a 1 in 70,000 chance). You are probably asking – “does this hurt?” The most common bone marrow donation is very similar to giving blood. The extent of the pain is a needle stick. There is a less common method where we take marrow from the hip, but you are asleep and not aware of what is going on.

No matter the method, you have the chance to save a life – to give a patient and their family a second chance! Interested in showing the world what a Q-tip can do?  You can join the Be The Match by visiting http://join.bethematch.org/sc

Dr. Suess said it best (as usual) – “To the World you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

For more information on Be The Match in South Carolina, contact:

Ashley Collier
Be The Match South Carolina
803-543-9034
acollier@nmdp.org