Collegiate Times

Several Virginia Tech Greek organizations are pooling together to help a three-year-old fight cancer for the second time.

Lois Hogan, of Richmond, is going through chemotherapy again and will need a bone marrow transplant.

On Monday, Alpha Phi Alpha, Delta Omicron, Tau Beta Sigma and Theta Xi are teaming with donor registry Be the Match to hold a drive on Monday to find a donor for Hogan.

Renee Gafford of Tau Beta Sigma, noting Lois’ mother’s teaching in Christiansburg, took the donor drive personally.

“She’s only three,” Gafford said. “I think people will just have that urge to want to help.”

Students may donate Monday on the third floor of Squires Student Center. Four swabs are taken from the lining of the potential donor’s cheek and sent to a lab for testing. If the swabs look like a possible match, the donor is asked to return for more testing. The tests continue until the pool is narrowed and a perfect match is found.

It is difficult to find an exact match, so the more people who sign up the better chance Hogan has.

“When we do find a match, it’s like needle in the haystack, hitting the lottery — it’s amazing,” said Addie Sanders, a representative from Be the Match’s Charlotte office. “You can actually get patients cured.”

In addition to organizing the donor drive, the groups have been asked to raise $3,000 to $5,000 to pay for lab testing and a potential marrow transplant. To offset the costs, the four organizations set up a donation page at Be the Match’s website, Marrow.org.

A version of this article appeared in the Nov 12 issue of the Collegiate Times.