Shelly Capozzoli was diagnosed with myelogenous leukemia in January 2004 and needed stem cell transplants to save her life.

Although her own stem cells were used to treat her illness, there is still a possibility of a need for a bone marrow donation from an outside source.

"I can't support [bone marrow donation] enough," Capozzoli (senior-psychology and journalism) said. "There is a possibility that I would need a transplant of that kind if I went into relapse."

This weekend, the Penn State Student Red Cross Club, in conjunction with the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, will be holding its final three blood drives of the Thon season, including one bone marrow drive. These drives are especially important to students like Capozzoli.

Over the course of a five-year partnership with Thon, the Red Cross Club has been able to collect as many as 2,869 pints of blood each year, Wendi Keeler, Red Cross Club adviser, said in a previous interview.

Tomorrow, the Red Cross Club will continue to pursue pints of blood while asking donors to participate in the Bone Marrow Donor Registry. This is the third year that students have been able not only to give blood, but to enter the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to help cancer patients.

At the end of the donation, students interested in entering the NMDP need only to donate one extra tube of blood that will be sent to the registry.

"Students can enter the registry and donate with just one needle stick," Keeler said.

Once the extra tube of blood is taken, it is sent to the registry for Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing. It is checked for six different components that are entered into the NMDP.

"In order to be compatible, donors must match four out of the six components. They are then called back for more testing to see if they are compatible, and then their physician can determine two ways of extracting marrow," Keeler said.

Keeler said the criteria for entering the NMDP is different from regular blood donation.

"There is no required iron level and there are no travel restrictions," she said. "Even students who are feeling sick on the day of the drive can still come in and donate a tube of blood."

This year, the Red Cross Club is looking to register an additional 200 people while emphasizing the importance of multicultural donors, Keeler said.

"There are currently 5.5 million people in the registry -- 3 to 4 million of them are Caucasian," Keeler said. "The disparity [between races] is huge."

It is already difficult for a patient searching the registry to find a match, and it is even harder for minority patients.

"Caucasians have an 85 percent chance of finding a match in the registry, while minorities have a chance as low as 10 percent, depending on their background," Red Cross Club Public Relations Intern Kaitlin Miller said.

Finding college donors is also especially important, because once they are entered into the registry, they will remain potential bone marrow donors for years, NMDP Recruitment Supervisor Alice Kaplan said.

"Younger donors are a preferred match because they remain in the registry longer," Kaplan said. "They have the potential to save lives over the next few decades."

Many of these donations also go toward patients who are younger than 19 with leukemia or other blood cancers.

By entering the registry, students have the possibility of saving one of the Thon kids' lives, Miller said.

Capozzoli, who has been in remission for a year and nine months, continues to advocate the importance of marrow donations.

"The chance that you could save a life has got to be one of the best feelings in the world," she said.