Local woman donates stem cells through national registry

PLATTSBURGH Lois Wenger cites her faith in God as the underlying factor in her ability to help others in need, and she has never faltered in lending a helping hand.

Or in this case some much-needed bone marrow.

Wenger, who works as a support specialist in CVPH Medical Center's Information Services and Support Department, has been donating blood for years. Her blood type is O-negative, which is the universal blood type and can be used by most people in need of a transfusion.

"My older sister is a medical technologist, so it's always been a regular practice (to give blood)," Wenger said.

That practice expanded a few years ago when Wenger heard that the CVPH Blood Donor Center was working with the Rhode Island Blood Donor Center on a plan to increase the national database for bone-marrow donations.

"Only about 5 million people (nationally) were in the database at that time," said Nancy Roberts, a registered nurse at the CVPH Blood Donor Center. "We thought it would be a good idea to send out the word (for needed donors) in our region."

During the past few years, the Donor Center has hosted a bone-marrow registration at the annual Relay for Life fundraising program for the American Cancer Society.

Those successful drives, along with registrations made through the Blood Donor Center, have resulted in about 700 people from the North Country now being listed on the bone-marrow donation registry.

Those potential donors remain anonymous while their specific tissue type (collected by a simple cheek swab when registering) is recorded via bar code.

There is nothing else for the potential donor to do unless they are notified of a potential match anywhere in the country and even across the globe.

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Local woman donates stem cells through national registry