By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN >> Chris Gennaro, director of football operations at Yale University, soon will be heading to Capitol Hill for a serious cause: advocating for the $35 million that Be the Match, the national blood marrow donor registry, receives from Congress.
Gennaro, 24, already has given more than his testimony, however — he’s a donor himself.
In 2009, Gennaro, who hails from Saco, Maine, was on the University of Maine football team and organized the marrow donation on that campus.“When I was running that, I put my name in the national marrow database just by swabbing my cheek,” Gennaro said. Three years later, he got the call that he was a match for a 40-year-old woman who needed a donation.
“When I first got the call about it, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it,” Gennaro said, because he’d just started an internship at Yale. But football coach Tony Reno “was really excited for me.” It was a procedure that took a little more than four hours.
“You’re sitting in a chair; it’s actually pretty comfortable once you get used to it,” Gennaro said.
Chad Ramsey, legislative relations director for Be the Match, said some donations are still given by withdrawing marrow from the hip bone, which requires anesthesia. The more frequent way now though is through apheresis, a process similar to dialysis, after taking a drug that increases production of blood cells.
While there is a need each year for 12,000 marrow transplants to treat leukemia and other diseases, Ramsey said, “Annually, we help facilitate about 6,500 transplants. … These are people who require a marrow transplant in order to survive, and they don’t have a family member to be their match.”
Gennaro said there will be a Be the Match drive at the Yale Commons from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 16. There are two others before that at Quinnipiac University: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 23 on the Mount Carmel campus; and noon to 4 p.m. March 24 at 370 Bassett Road, North Haven.
“It takes 10 to 15 minutes to fill out some paperwork, then get your cheek swabbed and you’re done,” Gennaro said. “It’s very rewarding. It’s a great feeling just knowing you did something to help save someone’s life. Not too many people get that chance.”
Call Ed Stannard at 203-680-9382.