West Conn to host bone marrow donor drive

The Western Connecticut State University Department of Nursing and Julia’s Wings Foundation are co-hosting a bone marrow donor drive on Saturday, March 7.

The drive will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 212/214 of the Campus Center on the university’s Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. Delete Blood Cancer DKMS is also collaborating on the event.

The nonprofit Julia’s Wings Foundation was created following the death of 14-year-old Julia Malsin, who was diagnosed with a blood disease named aplastic anemia. Julia lived in Kent and members of the town rallied with financial and volunteer support when Julia’s family decided to remember their daughter and sister with an agency that would fund research and assist families of children with life-threatening hematological diseases.

Every year, more than 14,000 people in the U.S. find themselves in need of a bone marrow transplant and 70 percent of them will not find a match within their immediate family and will have to rely on an unrelated donor from the national registry. For more information or to register, visit www.deletebloodcancer.

For more information, call the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.