WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — William & Mary’s annual Be the Match drive encourages students to add their names to the Be the Match registry with hopes to save the lives of those with blood cancers through bone marrow transplants. The Tribe’s football team is especially involved as head coach Mike London has a personal connection.
In 2003, he was identified as a match for his 4-year-old daughter, Ticynn, who had been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder.
Today, Ticynn has a B.S. from Old Dominion and a Master’s from the University of Lynchburg. She is the head athletic trainer at Heritage High School in Newport News.
Recently, one of London's players was able to have a similar impact on someone's life.
“They always say God puts you in a place for a reason. I think this is what of the reasons I was put here,” said All-American offensive lineman Charles Grant.
The Portsmouth native didn't think twice about adding his name to the registry.
“It only took like three minutes to sign up.”
Three minutes, and then you wait. In Grant's case, he received a text just over a year after signing up.
“I was like, 'Dang, what if I get matched?' And then I got the text I was matched!”
Grant could save a life. And from there it wasn’t a question of if but when, especially considering that of the 9 million names on the Be the Match registry, just 7% are people of color.
“African Americans were the lowest group, so I just wanted to help out," he explained.
And the numbers are glaring considering that in most matches, the donor and recipient are from the same ethnic background. The odds of an African American finding a match is only 29%. For a Caucasian, the odds are 79%.
“That was one of the reasons I wanted to sign up because I just wanted to raise those numbers. The way it worked was they took blood from my right arm and collected it into a machine and whatever... they didn’t need they put back into my left arm,” he said describing the procedure.
The only thing Grant knows about his match is that it’s a young male. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever meet him, but if he ever does, he knows what he’d tell him.
“I’d probably say how he’s like the second person in the world to have my DNA because I have a twin brother, too. So, he’s joining the club!”