MOORPARK : College to Conduct Marrow Donor Tests

Volunteers will take blood samples from potential donors at Moorpark College this week as part of a national effort to collect life-saving bone marrow for people suffering from cancer and other diseases.

Samples will be taken from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Campus Center Building and from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.

The drive began as a search for bone marrow for a 9-month-old Chicago girl, although donors will be placed on a nationally distributed registry to determine if their marrow type matches those of other patients. Amanda Chandler, a 12-year-old Camarillo girl, and Ana Laura Garcia, a 7-month-old Ventura girl, also need marrow transplants.

“This is something everybody can do,” said Lynnette Chandler, regional coordinator for the National Marrow Donor Program. “It’s not painless, but it’s no worse than falling on your roller skates and bruising your hip.”

Donors must be between the ages of 18 and 55 and in good health. Each will be asked to give two tablespoons of blood. Only potential donors will be asked to return.

If a match is found, about a cup of marrow would be drawn from the hip, processed and then transplanted into the patient, whose own bone marrow is destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation.