Students encourage Penn to 'give a spit about cancer'

On Thursday, students and visitors had an opportunity to become a potential bone marrow donor.

Students of AMF at Penn hosted “Give a Spit about Cancer” at various locations around campus, including Houston Hall and the Graduate Student Center. Volunteers had their mouths swabbed to determine their bone marrow type. Once swabbed, their blood type was placed in a database that will inform them in the future if they are placed as a match for a bone marrow transplant. Potentially, those who participated could have an opportunity to save a life.

David Fajgenbaum, third-year Perelman School of Medicine student and president of AMF, initially founded the nationwide program in memory of his mother, Anne Marie Fajgenbaum — whose initials make up the organization’s name. He later expanded to include a Penn chapter for grieving Penn students who have also lost loved ones.

AMF now looks to save loved ones everywhere through events like “Give a Spit about Cancer.” Fajgenbaum emphasized that “four out of 10 patients never get a bone marrow transplant,” which is why it is “so important to try and increase the number of donors.” Giving someone a bone marrow transplant can be equivalent to “adding 10 to 15 years to someone’s life,” he said.

Students of AMF at Penn joined with DKMS, a bone marrow donor center, to host the event. Christian Montgomery, a DKMS donor recruiter, was there to help to make sure everything ran smoothly and to get as many people registered as possible. While many were hesitant to undergo a bone marrow transplant, which they believed to be a painful procedure, Montgomery reiterated the point that “there are few opportunities to save another human being’s life.” He told participants to ask themselves if they “would go through a few days of discomfort to save another person’s life.”

Thursday’s event registered 327 donors in total, which exceeded the target quota. That being said, in order to be a bone marrow donor, an individual has to be a perfect match on 10 genetic tests. Due to these rules and regulations, Fajgenbaum estimated that “only about 10 percent of the volunteers who showed up for the event would ever be called for a match.” While turnout was high, these statistics are a reminder that the more people that are registered and involved, the better.

Since founding the AMF chapter at Penn, Fajgenbaum has been very impressed by what he has seen around campus. “There is something about Penn where everyone has bought into and embraced AMF and what we do,” he said. He added that the large turnout for “Give a Spit about Cancer” was another testament to Penn’s engaged community.

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