UA News

Kristopher Weatherly's colleagues at the UA are working with the Be The Match Registry to hold a drive to educate people about the need for marrow transplant donors and also to try and find a match for Weatherly.

It will take a willing participant and a swab to the inner check to locate the bone marrow transplant donor who may save the life of one of The University of Arizona's own.

Kristopher Weatherly, associate director of the University Teaching Center, has been diagnosed with a leukemia-like cancer. The only life-saving treatment available for him is a bone marrow transfusion, but he doesn't have a match.

His sister passed away about six years ago from a similar condition and his brother, the would-be donor, turns out not to be a match, said Terri Riffe, the University Teaching Center's director.

Riffe, who has known Weatherly for about 20 years, said the more she learned about Weatherly's condition and the nationwide need for marrow donors, the more compelled she felt to take action.

"It typically takes four to six weeks to organize a bone marrow drive," she said, adding that Weatherly was in the hospital this week. "But he needs a transplant now. We don't have a lot of time to figure this out."

For this reason, Riffe connected with the Be The Match Registry, the new name for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry. Since then, Riffe and her colleagues at the UA center have cast a wide net in search of a marrow donor for Weatherly while also encouraging others to add their names to the national registry.

The center is hosting a two-day bone marrow donor recruitment drive on the UA Mall just south of the Student Union Memorial Center. The drive, which is no cost to registrants, will be held April 21 and 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both days.

Also, a training session for those who would like to volunteer during the drive will be held 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on April 20 in the Tucson Room of the Student Union Memorial Center. A member of the registry's staff will be on site to conduct the training, which is free.

The national registry helps individuals find marrow and blood cell transplants, maintaining a national list of volunteer donors.

An actual bone marrow donation will not be taken during the drive at the UA. Those interested will be asked to give a cheek swab and to have their name placed on the reigstry. If a match is made, the potential donor will be contacted at a later date.

While at the UA, Weatherly has also served as the principal and senior consultant with Weatherly & Associates, a management consulting firm he founded in 1986.

Prior to working at the UA, Weatherly served as an associate professor at Campbellsville University, where he continues to teach Web-based courses as an adjunct professor. This week, that university also held a search for a possible bone marrow donor for Weatherly.

While the focus of the drive is certainly on Weatherly, it is a multifaceted effort that involves community education, Riffe said, adding that she and others hope to draw a record number of registrants – 500 people at a minimum.

She said Weatherly and his family are aware that the center is helping to find a donor.

Riffe said the events at UA could be a benefit not only to Weatherly, but many more people.

"We're in a good position to help him as well as educate our community," Riffe said, adding that the registry is checked about 6,000 times daily for a match.

"The demand is very high relative to the instances of leukemia these days. There is a really significant need for people to be registered," she added.

Currently, about 12 million names are on the registry. But the national organization is especially keen to identify donors from American Indian, African American, Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander populations.

"Minorities are highly underrepresented in our registry," said Aubrie Vargas, the registry's regional director in Phoenix, noting that more than 70 percent of the people listed are Caucasian.

"It's really sad to say, but this is something where the color of your skin really matters," she said.

"We really need to educate all people that this is not something we should be afraid of," Vargas added, noting that many misconceptions exist about marrow donation – particularly that it is a hugely painful process when, in fact, it is not.

More than 10,000 people of all ages are estimated to need marrow or blood cell transplants each year with the majority of the patients having been diagnosed with leukemia, lymphomas or other blood cancers, the registry reported. Last year, the registry aided in more than 4,000 transplants.

"With the registry, our numbers are growing every day, which is nice," Vargas said. "We almost need to double the number of names in the registry."