JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
Joint Base Andrews is holding a bone marrow registration drive from July 27-31, 2015.
Registration booths will be set up at the Base Exchange, Commissary, the Jones Building and the Air National Guard Readiness Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as the promotion ceremony at the Base Theater on Friday. Extra locations may be announced.
Salute to Life, a DoD-sponsored program that registers potential bone marrow donors and finds matches for patients in need of bone marrow transfusions, is conducting the drive.
"Registering in the program doesn't mean you have to donate," said Senior Master Sgt. Paul Duit, ANGRC aircraft maintenance policy manager and bone marrow donor. "It was six years before I was told I was a potential match, and I was allowed to stop the process of donating at any time."
The bone marrow registration process consists of swabbing the inside of the cheek and filling out a form. Potential donors are then put into a medical database. If one of the approximately 12,000 patients per year that need bone marrow matches a potential donor's DNA, then the process of determining candidacy begins.
"I didn't feel anything [during the procedure]," Duit said. "I didn't sleep for 3 days because I was so excited and felt so good."
Duit's bone marrow was used to save the life of a woman in Hong Kong.
"Being in the military, there's a good chance that we're fit enough to consistently be donors," Duit said. "You won't always know who's at the receiving end; it could be a man, woman or child. Helping someone stay alive is one of the most incredible feelings in the world."