Since 2009, more than 13,000 swabs have been collected and more than 30 matches have been made through Hillel at Ohio University’s “Got Swabbed?” program.
“Five minutes. One cheek swab. Save a life.” That is the goal of “Got Swabbed?”, a program of Hillel at Ohio University to enter people into the Delete Blood Cancer DKMS registry.
At the latest “Got Swabbed?” drive, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at the Ping Center, students can take a few minutes to cotton swab their cheeks to enter the registry and potentially save a life.
“If all I had to do was swab my cheek for 10 seconds to save a life, why would I say no?” Gray Levine, a freshman studying business and one of four “Got Swabbed?” interns who work to get as many people as possible swabbed and into the registry, said.
Though the interns are constantly collecting swabs, big drives, such as the one this week, are held a few times a semester, according to Lauren Goldberg, assistant director of Hillel.
“The drives really get the name moving,” Rachel Komich, a senior studying English and a “Got Swabbed?” intern, said. “And people get more familiar with what ‘Got Swabbed?’ is and then they’re more willing to be swabbed.”
To be eligible to register, a person must be at least 18 years old and meet certain health requirements. Once entered, a person is registered until the age of 61, according to Be The Match.
Diseases treatable by bone marrow transplants include leukemias, lymphomas and inherited immune system disorders, according to Be The Match.
“This is literally an opportunity to save someone’s life by giving a piece of yourself that will live inside of that other person for the rest of their life,” Goldberg said.
Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, executive director of Hillel, said she wants students to realize the impact they could make by getting swabbed.
“There is this idea within Judaism that if you’ve saved one life, it’s as if you’ve saved an entire world, and that holds true for our organization in that we want students to feel the responsibility and the urgency of saving lives,” Leshaw said.
Hillel has been sponsoring “Got Swabbed?” since its inception in 2009. Since then, more than 30 matches have been made from more than 13,000 swabs from students, faculty and staff, Goldberg said.
One of the matches was Traci Schreibman, a senior studying social work, who swabbed herself in October 2013 while training to be a “Got Swabbed?” volunteer. In February 2015, she donated bone marrow to a 9-year-old girl fighting two types of leukemia.
“It’s so rare to find a match, and there’s so many people that are in need of a donation,” Schreibman said. “So the more that get swabbed, the better chances there are of finding that match.”
However, Komich and Schreibman said people getting swabbed should be sure they’d be willing to donate if they become a match.
“The entire goal of the program is to save lives and match people with swabs,” Levine said.
Though they don’t take any collection for granted, Goldberg said there’s nothing like the feeling of a big “Got Swabbed?” drive.
“When the momentum starts going and all of a sudden there is a huge group of people all getting swabbed at the same time and the energy is just high, there’s nothing like that feeling,” she said. “You feel like you’re truly saving lives.”
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