Minneapolis - March 29, 2011
Laura Houghton, a Twin Cities resident, joined the Be The Match Registry after a close friend died of cancer. A year after she registered, she got the call that she was a match for a 3-year-old boy. Laura later got to meet Owen Jensen, the recipient of her bone marrow.
Houghton’s friend was the reason she signed up, and that her friend is also the reason Owen was able to go on living.
All of the tissue samples submitted through a donor registry drive are cataloged and stored in a repository in New Brighton, Minn., where two of Houghton’s tissue sample cotton swabs remain. Mary Halet, a spokesperson for Be The Match, encourages more people to join the registry by swabbing their cheek in order to give more people a chance to receive life-saving bone marrow.