FROM STAFF REPORTS

HOOVER — Jefferson State Community College is honoring one of its own by hosting a Be The Match registry drive Sept. 18.

Be The Match is the world’s largest registry of potential bone marrow donors.

Jeff State nursing program graduate Clint Cleckler, an oncology nurse at UAB, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in March 2012. His best hope of survival was through a bone marrow transplant, but he did not have a matching donor in his family, according to a Jeff State press release.

Through Be The Match, Cleckler found a matching donor and received a transplant.

The registry drive will be from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Health Sciences Building at the Shelby-Hoover Campus on Valleydale Road.

Participants should be between the ages of 18-44 and in good health, and will only need to give a cheek swab, which will be analyzed and kept on the registry. Participants will only be contacted if they are found to be a match for someone in need, according to the press release.

Jeff State is also asking for donations in any amount to help Be The Match afford the $100 cost of adding each new participant to the registry.

For more information, visit Bethematch.org.