Winthrop, community can register to save lives

By Amanda Phipps

Winthrop’s men’s soccer team photographer will live because of a bone marrow transplant. Winthrop students and people in the community can also help save lives.

The National Bone Marrow Registry Drive will take place on Wednesday April 14th in the West Center and will invite people ages 18 to 60 to register and possibly save a person’s life, said men’s soccer head coach Richard Posipanko, who is facilitating the event.

“We are hoping to register as many people as possible for the National Bone Marrow Registry,” he said. “Our goal is to register 300 plus people.”

Volunteers from across Winthrop will take shifts in helping run the event, Posipanko said. The volunteers will be under the direction of Addie Sanders from BeTheMatch, a national organization who is involved in the Registry, and her staff.

The Registry was formed because of Barbara Skonicki, who has been taking photographs for the men’s soccer team for four years and was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and has been in need of a bone marrow transplant for the past several months, Posipanko said. Skonicki also has four children and a husband. Two of her sons are also on the soccer team.

Skonicki said she was told five years ago that she had leukemia after extensive other treatments, and her hope for a long-term survival became a bone marrow transplant. She could not find a match with her relatives and began searching the National Registry, where she found three perfect matches. Skonicki said she was lucky to have found a match.

“There are many people in need of bone marrow transplants and they can’t find their match in the National Registry even though there are over 10 million people currently registered,” she said. “This fact sparked my interest in getting people into the registry.”

The Registry event was started in honor of Skonicki and because there is a need for people to join the registry, especially minorities because of a shortage, Posipanko said.

The Registry requires some paperwork and a swab test of the person’s mouth, Posipanko said.

He said he organized the event in honor of Skonicki and is in charge of spreading the word.

“(I’m) just the Winthrop soccer coach trying to make a small difference in someone’s life,” he said.

The drive has a simple purpose, Posipanko said.

“The Bone Marrow Drive is simply to get people to join the National Registry and educate people,” he said. “We have a lot of fine young people here at Winthrop who are deeply involved in community service and trying to make a difference.”

The Registry event will bring people together to possibly save someone’s life in the future, Skonicki said.

“I’m hoping the bone marrow drive will bring awareness to people how easy and pain free it can be to help save someone’s life that is in need of a bone marrow transplant,” she said. “If we get one person registered it can be the difference between life and death for someone.”

Want to go?

What: Bone Marrow Registry Drive

Where:  West Center

When: Wed., April 14th

Time: 10 a.m to 5 p.m.

Must be: Age 18-60; Willing to donate to any person in need; Meet healthy requirements