Story by: Sgt. 1st Class Tera N. Dooley
1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Red Bull Infantry Division

CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait - Feb. 4, 2012 is World Cancer Day and soldiers of the 134th Brigade Support Battalion from the Minnesota Army National Guard, deployed to Kuwait, helped to support awareness for this day through volunteering their time to register others as bone marrow donors, some even became donors themselves.

First Lt. Brett Farniok, from Montrose, Minn., was one of those who became a donor. “I decided to donate because I simply figure, if I can save someone's life by going through a little pain....why not?”

World Cancer Day began in 2006 by the Union for International Cancer Control. The organization, founded in 1933, is the leading international non-governmental organization dedicated to the prevention and control of cancer worldwide.

On Feb. 4 of every year, the UICC encourages anyone anywhere in the world to bring awareness to the effects of cancer. Each year 12.7 million people receive a cancer diagnosis and 7.6 million people die from cancer.

”I personally know many people who have been affected by cancer so the act of registering my genetic profile in the bone marrow database, with the knowledge that in the future I may be called upon to save a life seems the least I could do to help others,” said Sgt. Chris Vinderslev from Appleton, Minn.

Capt. Rhonda Philliber, deployed with the 325th Combat Support Hospital, a National Guard unit from Missouri, helped initiate the weeklong donor drive that places all those willing to register in the National Bone Marrow Registry. After being entered into the database, genetic profiles are matched to those in the United States that may be in need of bone marrow. The process to register as a donor is as simple as providing contact information and swabbing the inside of your cheek.

“By hosting a Department of Defense Marrow Donor Registry drive, I am offering the soldiers the opportunity to register as a bone marrow donor and giving them another opportunity to give to back to their communities,” said Philliber.

Sgt. 1st Class Deanna Poling from St. Paul, Minn., has been on the National Bone Marrow Registry for 15 years and volunteered to help others become donors during the bone marrow drive at Camp Virginia, Kuwait. “I wanted to help out today because volunteering encourages people and there is such a need [for donors]. If I have something in me that can save someone’s life, I’ll give it.”

Another soldier who assisted with the bone marrow donor drive Spc. Nathaniel Christoffer had a personal reason for doing so. “My brother was a bone marrow recipient. I was really young when he was diagnosed with cancer so I don’t remember much, but I do know he is still alive because a stranger was willing to donate their bone marrow.”

Soldiers of the 325th Combat Support Hospital, along with 134th BSB soldiers helped over 200 personnel register as donors from Jan. 29, 2012 through Feb. 4, 2012.

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