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Flower Mound boy hopes to add bone marrow donors: Jonathan Provost's Eagle Scout project could help save lives
By Anthony Tosie, atosie@starlocalnews.com
For Jonathan Provost, choosing his Eagle Scout project was an easy choice. Jonathan's cousin, Matthew Zieman, passed away from Acute Lymphatic Leukemia in February at the age of 24. Because of this, Jonathan's Eagle Scout project is a bone marrow donor registry drive.
"Matt was at his apartment last year and noticed a few bumps on the back of his neck," Jonathan said. "He just ignored them for a few weeks and then he told one of his friends, and she said to get it checked out. So he went by the hospital, they did a few tests, and they found out it was leukemia."
Jonathan hopes the drive will find a number of donors who can help current cancer patients, due to the difficulty of finding donor matches. Immediate family members are generally the first place doctors look for bone marrow donors; Matthew's only sibling wasn't a match, however, which made finding a donor more difficult.
The drive will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 9, at Brad Duren Dentistry, located at 4030 Justin Road, Suite 102, in Flower Mound. The office is past the Chinn Chapel Soccer Complex and across from the Crossroads Bible Church. Jonathan chose the office partly because of its location and partly because of a familiarity.
"It's also off a popular road, and [Brad] told me he'd let me host the donor drive for free," he said. "He's my dentist and my mom works here, too."
The process of becoming a donor is easy. After having a cheek swab done, potential donors merely have to fill out a donor consent form, which will place them in the national bone marrow donor registry. Testing is then done to determine a genetic match between cancer patients and their potential donor. Patients see better results the closer a donor's genetics match his or her own.
If an individual is chosen as a blood donor, he or she will be called to Carter BloodCare to donate blood.
"A lot of people don't know it's really easy to do this -- it's not a complicated process at all," Jonathan said. "They generally don't put a needle in your hip anymore; they normally just take blood and that's it. The process is a lot simpler than it used to be."
Following a successful blood donation, known as peripheral blood stem cell donation, doctors will obtain stem cells from the blood of the donor. Those stem cells will then be given to a cancer patient that's a genetic and blood match in order to stimulate healthy red blood cell production.
If a donor is selected to give a bone marrow donation, he or she will have liquid marrow extracted from the back of the pelvic bone. This type of donation is far less likely, however.
Jonathan's project has been a team effort for the Provost family. Jonathan's sisters, Victoria and Alison, posted about the event on Facebook in an effort to get college-aged friends to register as donors. Several of Alison's friends from Flower Mound High School have volunteered to help out at the drive and Jonathan's mom, Debbie, invited the parents of Boy Scouts in Jonathan's troop to help out as well.
The requirements for becoming a bone marrow donor are simple. Donors must be older than 18 but younger than 60. Additionally, donors should be in good physical shape. Additional requirements can be found at marrow.org.
"I'm hoping for a big crowd," said Jonathan, who can't yet be a donor himself as he's only 15, although he plans on becoming a donor when he's older. "I'm just hoping for as many people as we can get, but my goal's to get 100."
Victoria, Alison, Debbie and Jonathan's dad, Russell, have all registered as donors. It wasn't a hard decision for the family following Matthew's diagnosis.
"When we were in Boston to see Matt after his diagnosis, Russell immediately signed up to be a donor at a stem cell drive," Debbie said. "I also signed up around that time."
According to the National Marrow Donor program, thousands of individuals who have blood cancers, such as Matthew's leukemia, are in need of bone marrow donors. Despite millions of donors, some cancer-stricken patients can't find donor matches due to genetic reasons. Because of this, donors with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are needed.
The Eagle Scout project Jonathan chose certainly isn't the easiest. Typical projects include the construction of park benches and similar tasks. Jonathan doesn't seem to mind the added difficulty, given the benefit it provides others.
"This [project] is fairly out of the ordinary," he said. "Most people make things that benefit the community, and I decided I wanted to do this event to help others -- I thought it'd be a really great event."
Jonathan's effort to help others may just be getting started, if his future goals are any indication.
"I haven't picked out a career, but I know I want to do something in medicine or something that save lives -- something that helps people," he said.
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