Four years ago, Kyle Huebner of Fulton, IL, was a 20-year-old college student. He participated in a blood drive through Western Illinois University, in Moline, IL. At the same event he took a bone marrow screening.
Be The Match (BTM) holds free, cheek-swab, testing events, recording blood and bone marrow information, from volunteers’ DNA. The organization has done so for decades. BTM is a global leader in bone marrow transplantation.
Heubner is shown this month after happily donating his blood stem cells, to assist a patient with blood cancer.
Since 2016, Huebner has owned KT3 Fitness, 912 4th Street, in downtown Fulton. His gym will be the site of a drive-through, Bone Marrow Donor Sign-Up, for BTM, on Saturday, March 27, 2021, from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Huebner explained, “People can get their cheek swabbed and registered in [the BTM] database, to be a potential match for someone needing a bone marrow transplant in the future. Nobody will actually be donating bone marrow, rather just getting registered to be a possible donor. I recently had an opportunity to be a donor in late January.”
In early December 2020, Huebner received a phone call that illustrated the enormous import of his 2016 decision to be screened. Be the Match had found someone whose life he would be able to extend. On January 18, 2021, he did just that, by giving a blood donation at the Rock River Valley Blood Center in Rockford, IL.
“A match is pretty rare,” remarked the 24-year-old. “To be a donor, your blood and marrow must match that of someone with blood cancer. It was a miracle that the recipient and I were a perfect match! It was a very humbling, amazing experience….I would love to give others the opportunity to do [this], if they do get the chance. My recipient was a 32-year-old lady who had leukemia, who I hope to get the chance to meet” after a year.
“We believe it is our responsibility as a business to love our neighbors in every way we can, and this is a great opportunity to do just that. We are so excited to have the drive and hope everyone has a chance to get registered,” Huebner concluded. “If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 563-219-2187.”
The website states, “Not everyone on the Be The Match Registry® will match and be asked to donate to a patient. In fact, the chances of donating are about 1 in 430. If you are asked to donate, the patient’s doctor has chosen you as the best donor. The cure for blood cancer is in the hands of ordinary people. You could be the cure.”
