UAlbany Students Save Lives with Gift of Life’s Swab Week

A UAlbany student swabs to join the national registry in the Campus Center.
Freshman Drea Vanvranken swabs to join the national registry alongside Gift of Life Campus Ambassadors Malachy Cashman, Jayden Elston, Kayla Sandolo and James Hachadoorian. (Photo by Sophie Coker)

By Sophie Coker

ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 5, 2024) Dressed in bright white shirts reading “Best Cheeks on Campus,” the UAlbany Gift of Life chapter can be found on campus this week recruiting students to join the stem cell and bone marrow registry.  

Gift of Life, a nonprofit based in Boca Raton, Fla., was founded in the 1990s by a leukemia patient and his family upon discovering that the worldwide donor registry was inclusive of all ethnicities, which is the best hope for a match. The grassroots campaign has since helped this patient and registered 484,412 donors, according to the Gift of Life marrow registry website.  

UAlbany Gift of Life Campus Ambassadors (CAPs), alongside student organizations and athletic programs, host biannual “Swab Weeks” in hopes to save as many lives as possible. 

This semester’s Swab Week is happening now through Friday, Nov. 8. Last semester, UAlbany's chapter collected 775 swabs, with 676 transferred to the national registry, resulting in 13 matches and 2 transplants.

Jayden Elston sits under an orange blanket while donating stem cells at the Gift of Life Collection Center in Boca Raton, Fla.
Jayden Elston donates stem cells at the Gift of Life Collection Center in Boca Raton, Fla. (Photo courtesy of the Gift of Life Concierge Team)

“College students are the healthiest people out there,” said Malachy Cashman, UAlbany’s Gift of Life chapter vice president and a senior business major. “People in their late teens and 20s are the most ideal donors, which is why it makes sense to swab here on campus.”

“We are a large student body and have the potential to match with many people,” he added. “UAlbany is consistently the host of some of the largest swab drives across the country, matching 78 donors from the 3,183 total swabs collected since we launched three years ago.”

Jayden Elston, a sophomore human development major, donated stem cells in early October after swabbing at a campus event last year. His transplant went to a 74-year-old male battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a rare form of blood cancer that affects white blood cells. 

Elston emphasized that the bloodwork procedure wasn’t scary. Following the simple five-minute cheek swab, he said that he was able to play on his Nintendo Switch and watch TV during his stem cell donation, which typically takes 4-6 hours.  

Elston joined the UAlbany chapter as a CAP this semester to help with the swab drive and tell his story as a donor.

“It’s an amazing experience for college students to give back. It shapes your perspective when you participate in something that has such a positive impact,” he said.  

To join the donor registry alongside Jayden and the 34,154 other matches, look for the big, inflatable cheek swabs at the Gift of Life events happening all week long, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the following locations:

  • Tuesday, Nov. 5: Campus Center; GO Table across from Starbucks
  • Wednesday, Nov 6: Small Fountain; Outside of Campus Center East
  • Thursday, Nov. 7: Campus Center; Info desk by the Damien Statue
  • Friday, Nov. 8: State and Indigenous Quads