The chance of being matched to a recipient seems very slight, but as Becca Kastan would tell you, they are not impossible.

Last spring, the now-junior Becca Kastan stopped by Marrowthon on a whim and donated a sample to the registry. Six months later, a few days after she returned from a study abroad program in Australia, Kastan received a phone call from the NMDP telling her that she was a perfect match for a 21-year-old boy with acute lymphatic leukemia.

"I had totally forgot I had even signed up for this procedure," Kastan said, citing the initial shock she felt upon learning that she could contribute as a bone marrow donor. "I was just blown away by the situation. But right off the bat, I was so gung ho about it. I just didn't understand how this opportunity could be turned down."

However, in the recent past, there were plenty of reasons a bone marrow transplant could be turned down. Bone marrow used to involve drilling into the donor's bone to remove tissue. Due to recent advances in adult stem cell research, marrow donation has become much less invasive. Donors receive a series of five injections of a drug call filgrastim that causes blood cell-producing stem cells to "overproduce" to the point that they can actually be harvested from the blood stream.

From there, marrow donation is a procedure similar to blood donation: The blood is removed through a sterile needle in the arm, passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells, and then the remaining blood is returned to the donor. The recovery time is less than one day, and the only common side effect in donors is muscle soreness.

This is the process Kastan underwent in January.

"It only lasted three to five hours," Kastan said. "I was up and moving after the first couple of hours - I was working out the next day. It was a very easy process and taking that part out of life to save someone's is just really rewarding."

Kastan recommends that all students stop by today and register for the NMDP.

"To register is so easy - it's not even getting your blood drawn, " she said. "The whole process overall is just so organized. They take care of you and handle it so well."

Marrowthon coordinator Sarah Proffitt urges students to register as well.

"Dramatizations of gruesome surgery have the general public scared to death of bone marrow transplants. However, these are all terrible misconceptions," Proffitt said.

According to the NMDP, approximately 35,000 children and adults require a bone marrow transplant every year.

"If students just give a tissue sample, they could be the second chance at life for one of those patients," Proffit said.

To add incentive for the drive, registers will be entered into various drawings for prizes, and sorority members can receive Derby Days points.

—Nikki Bogopolskaya can be reached at veronica.bogopolskaya@vanderbilt.edu