An Isles Fan's Journey to the Bone Marrow Registry

Evan Gauer didn’t think twice when he traded a cheek swab for a cupcake on the Stony Brook campus during a rugby recruiting trip.

What started as a shortcut to a sweet treat actually led to the collegiate athlete – and New York Islanders fan – getting involved in a cause that now runs deep in his bones. Literally.

Gauer’s cheek swab entered him into the national blood stem cell registry operated by NMDP – formerly Be The Match – for bone marrow donation and a year later he was matched with an eight-year-old boy battling blood cancer in need of a marrow transplant. Gauer answered the call and donated and is now spreading the word on behalf of the NMDP, trying to show how easy it is to get involved in a potentially life-saving process.

“Every single person has the opportunity to actually be that lifesaving match for a patient out there,” Gauer said.

A bone marrow transplant may sound harrowing, but 90% of cases are routine as donating platelets or plasma, with the secondary option being a minor surgery, which was the case for Gauer. The end goal is extracting blood stem cells, which are transferred to patients with blood cancers – like Leukemia – whose own white blood cells are attacking their system.

While most blood types are relatively common and transferrable, bone marrow matches are much rarer, which is why the NMDP encourages more people to get tested and grow the registry.

“The idea is if we can get as many people as we can on this registry, more of these people are going to be able to find matches, because it is so rare,” Gauer said.

With awareness being the goal, the NMDP are partnering with the Islanders on Hockey Fights Cancer night to spread the word. Fans attending the game on Nov. 23 can visit the national registry table on the concourse to get swabbed.

“Any way that we can continue to spread that message, and with the support of teams like the Islanders, with such an amazing and large fan base, it has the ability to how to help amplify that message, and as many people as possible onto that list,” Gauer said.

For fans who can’t attend the game on Nov. 23, at-home swab kits can be ordered via my.nmdp.org/nyislanders or by texting “NYIslanders” to 61474, complete with prepaid return envelopes. Gauer said it’s easy to get involved and for fans who aren’t eligible to donate, they can still help by spreading the word.

“Just spreading the message and learning about what it is, is huge,” Gauer said. “The more people that are aware of who we are, our mission and how it gets accomplished just goes further to help as many patients as possible.”