Fay Koyfman '24 of Seattle, Washington, who is majoring in chemistry and Russian, is making a difference as the Gift of Life Marrow Registry college campus ambassador.Fay explains that Gift of Life registry seeks to help BIPOC individuals and communities who are disproportionately disadvantaged find donor matches for bone marrow transplants.

Over the last eight years that Hillel at Eckerd College has hosted bone marrow and blood stem cell registration drives through the Boca Raton-based Gift of Life [Marrow Registry], there have now been four matches.

In December 2021, to raise awareness among SSU students about the life-saving potential of bone marrow transplants Glen Kuffner’s fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, collected 100 cheek swab kits from campus community members and sent them to the nonprofit bone marrow and blood stem cell registry Gift of Life.

A persistent friend and a willingness to help others helped Towaco resident Nicole Fierro save a life. Fierro’s friend Sydney Kirsch was a student at Syracuse University when Kirsch learned of the need for volunteers to swab their cheeks and possibly become stem cell or bone marrow donors to save the lives of those with blood cancer.

Anthony Nolan is a UK based charity first set up by Shirley Nolan to find a matched hematopoietic stem cell donor for her son, Anthony. To this day our mission remains the same, to save and improve the lives of everyone who needs a hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). Anthony Nolan has over 45 years’ experience of working with donors via the stem cell registry to provide hematopoietic cells for patients in need of a transplant across the globe...Gift of Life Marrow Registry also in the United States of America has developed Gift of Life Biologics, an all-in-one solution for cell and gene therapy developers.

Eight years ago, when Rebecca "Becca" Berg went on a Birthright trip to Israel, her group met with volunteers from Gift of Life. The nonprofit runs a bone marrow and blood stem cell registry that helps facilitate transplants for children and adults suffering from life-threatening illnesses, including leukemia, lymphoma, other cancers, and genetic diseases. Berg was asked if she would be willing to sign up for the registry and be swabbed, in the hopes that she might someday be a match for someone in grave need of bone marrow or stem cells.