Dylan Mistretta, a fourteen-year old student who attends Burns Middle School and is currently working hard to accomplish one of his life goals of becoming an Eagle Scout with the Belwood Troop #413. Dylan has chosen to commit his Eagle Scout Service Project to help save as many lives as possible! His service project is a bone marrow drive called "Give a Swab Save a Life". Dylan decided to team up with the Gift of Life and conduct bone marrow drives in hopes of saving as many lives as possibly. His decision was an easy one after his stepfather, Eric Newton, was a confirmed bone marrow match to a cancer patient in need after being on the bone marrow registry nearly twenty years.
Did you know that every four minutes a child or adult is diagnosed with blood cancer? That is three hundred and sixty people a day, 130,000 people a year in the United States. It is hard to believe that 70% of cancer patients do not have a related match so they must search the registry and that one in three patients for whom the Gift of Life conducts a donor search are for children. Mistretta said, "I found these statistics very alarming and decided to get involved, to do my part, and to help those in need." If you were given the opportunity to save a life would you?
Dylan has been doing various bone marrow drives in the community to educate citizens on the importance of being added to the bone marrow registry through the Gift of Life. His next bone marrow drive will be held on May 26 at Belwood Day in Belwood, NC from 10:30 AM to 1 PM. His last bone marrow drive/Hotdog Fundraiser will be at Casar Fire Department on June 2 beginning at 10 AM. All proceeds will go directly to the Gift of Life and will be designated to only be used for testing family members of cancer patients that are over the age of 45. Please show your support by coming out and getting added to the bone marrow registry. This is free of charge is you are between the ages of fourteen and forty-five. For more information call Dylan Mistretta at 704-692-8503 or email him at dr1mistretta@gmail.com.
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