EAST STROUDSBURG – The East Stroudsburg University athletic department announced on Monday morning that it will be holding the third-annual #RelentlesS Marrow Drive in Memory of Ryan Smith and Alyssa Oxenford, in partnership with Be The Match and the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation, on Thursday, Aug. 31.
The marrow drive, which is open to students and the public ages 18-44, begins at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday and runs through 3:00 p.m. on campus, with two locations available for a basic cheek swab outside Dansbury Commons and Koehler Fieldhouse. Both locations will be moved inside if there is inclement weather. Those who cannot attend the time window on campus can register for a swab kit to be mailed to their home by texting "ESUSaves" to 61474.
One of the most successful "Get In The Game" bone marrow drives in the country in recent years, ESU has added 1,373 potential donors to the Be The Match registry with two life-saving donors found over the past five years.
The Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation honored ESU at the AFCA Convention for leading all of NCAA Division II programs with 472 potential donors added during the second annual #RelentlesS Marrow Drive held last year. ESU had volunteers from 21 teams to encourage the campus community to sign up and help administer cheek swabs during the successful 2022 event.
The third-annual drive is named in memory of two fallen Warriors. Ryan Smith, a former men's basketball student-athlete at ESU, battled acute myeloid leukemia (AML) for 19 months until his passing on March 22, 2021. Alyssa Oxenford, a three-year starter for the ESU lacrosse team from 2012-14, was diagnosed with leukemia in May 2014, and passed away 15 months later on August 22, 2015.
Both Ryan Smith and Alyssa Oxenford will be honored and remembered prior to ESU football team's season opener against Pace on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m.
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About The Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation
Be The Match has been supported by former Villanova Football Head Coach Andy Talley, who has dedicated over 30 years to raising awareness about the need for blood stem cell and marrow donors. Get In The Game harnesses the power of collegiate athletics to rally students and staff on campuses around lifesaving bone marrow donation. Over the past fifteen years, Coach Talley has enlisted over 200 other college football programs to participate in GITG. Each program hosts their own on-campus donor drives each spring. The football players span the campus, educating and recruiting people to take the cheek swab test, thereby registering themselves as potential bone marrow donors on the Registry. Since 2008, GITG registry drives have been responsible for adding over 155,000 potential donors. More importantly, there have been over 1,000 transplants that have occurred with GITG donors! Because of our GITG program, 1,000 patients have been given a second chance at life they and their families desperately hoped for! In addition to the efforts made with the GITG program, the foundation also spends time hosting fundraising events to help support the expense of registering approximately 15,000 new donors each year. Each year, approximately 12,000 patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases depend on the Be The Match Registry to find a matching donor and Get In The Game aims to increase the likelihood that all patients receive the life-saving transplants they need.
About Be The Match
For people with life-threatening blood cancers—like leukemia and lymphoma—or other diseases, a cure exists. Be The Match connects patients with their donor match for a life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. People can contribute to the cure as a member of the Be The Match Registry, financial contributor or volunteer. Be The Match provides patients and their families one-on-one support, education, and guidance before, during and after transplant.
Be The Match is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP), a nonprofit organization that matches patients with donors, educates health care professionals and conducts research so more lives can be saved. To learn more about the cure, visit BeTheMatch.org or call 1 (800) MARROW-2.
