Category | News

Greeks hold marrow testing drive to find match for KSU student

Published on October 21, 2008 by The Sentinel

    Greeks at KSU hosted one of the largest single-day bone marrow
testing drives on Oct. 15 in the Student Center to look for a match for
KSU freshman John Moseley.

    Members of Greek Life organized the testing drive, which went from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Student Center, in order to find a match for John Moseley, a new member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Over 500 people, including students from other colleges, attended the event, joining the National Marrow Donor Program’s registry and agreeing to donate should they match someone on the registry.

    Moseley is battling aplastic anemia, a rare blood disorder that leaves bone marrow unable to produce enough blood-forming stem cells, causing fatigue and susceptibility to infection, among other symptoms, according to the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDSIF). Moseley is in need of a bone marrow transplant.

    Kappa Sigma member Dale Falk began a Facebook group titled “Courage: A Campaign for John Moseley,” which had 2,635 members at press time, to raise awareness about Moseley’s condition and communicate information about upcoming events and fundraisers for the campaign.

    “John’s one of the best guys I’ve ever met and really has been an inspiration to myself as well as our chapter and half of Kennesaw State, it seems. John has one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen in a person. He’s also got a strong-willed mind and represents our letters well,” said Falk.

    Each bone marrow testing cost $25 for Caucasions and was free for each minority, due to the extreme need for minorities in the registry. For each minority tested, one Caucasion was tested for free. BullFrogz Restaurant and Bar and Texas Roadhouse gave portions of their sales on various nights to the campaign to help offset the cost of testing. T-shirts are also being sold for $10 on the Facebook group to aid in the campaign.

    “Really, John’s the epitome of a Kappa Sig, and when his family told me they wouldn’t allow any fundraising to go to them but instead to the AAMDS Foundation, I knew there was work to be done. He told me that even if they couldn’t find a match for him, he was in this campaign to find someone out there a match,” said Falk, who added that he “definitely could not have pulled all this off…without some of the girls from Phi Mu and Delta Phi Epsilon.”

    On Thursday, all door sales at Opera Nightclub in Atlanta from 9 to 10 p.m. will go to the campaign. Other fundraisers are also being planned and will be announced on the campaign’s Facebook group.