WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley University Falcons have joined with 80 other football programs nationwide in the fight to add numbers to the national Bone Marrow Donation Registry through https://bethematch.org.

Bentley will be running its drive on Wednesday, Apr. 11 from 11 am-3 pm in Harry's Pub in the student center. For those not registered, that will take only 5-10 minutes for that process to be completed. And then, it takes only two swabs of your mouth.

"Please think about personally making the time for this," said Bentley football coach Bill Kavanaugh. "I personally was brought to tears after a recent presentation to our players while one of my daughter's classmates (only 2 years old) is looking for a match.

For the thousands of people diagnosed every year with life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, a cure exists. Over the past 25 years, Be The Match^®, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program^®, has managed the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world.

In 2008, Villanova head football coach Andy Talley received a phone call from Be The Match®, asking to partner with his decade long on-campus drive efforts. Through the years, Coach Talley enlisted many other college football programs to lead and host their own on-campus donor drives each spring. The football players span the campus, recruiting people to take the cheek swab test, thereby registering themselves as potential bone marrow donors on the Be The Match Registry. 

The Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation works with college coaches nationwide who are committed to giving back and doing more.  Leading by example, these coaches show their football players how even the smallest efforts can make a difference and ultimately make the world a better place.

 "Get in the Game. Save a Life" is a recruitment program that utilizes the power of collegiate athletics to recruit marrow donors for the Be The Match Registry^®. With the support of over 81 college football teams, this nationwide endeavor has added over 84,000 donors thus far, and is responsible for an astounding 489 transplants.