Life changing opportunity

Tony Merchlinsky ‘24 was out for two months of football his freshman year, but not for an injury. It was for something much bigger.

During his first year on the team he received a call from Apheresis Associates in Virginia, just two months after swabbing his cheek to be a possible match with someone for a bone marrow donation. They called him with the news that he was a match and was set to donate bone marrow to a patient with life-threatening cancer.

“I didn’t know the person. All I was told was that they were an adult male from Canada who I was a match with and I had the potential to help them,” said Merchlinksy.  That’s all Merchlinsky needed to know. “The process was very simple as they guided me through everything and made the trip to Canada very easy. In June 2021, I went through with the procedure and donated, and I am grateful to have had that opportunity.” 

Merchlinsky said this experience made him very happy and will be something he is forever grateful for. “Donating my stem cells for this person is one of the things I’m most proud of in my life. It was the easiest and most painless experience I could go through that resulted in giving another person a second chance at life.” He recommends that everybody join the registry for ‘Be the Match,’ an organization operated by the National Bone Marrow Program.

Be the Match is an organization that works to help people with life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. The football team holds an annual event with ‘Be The Match’ on campus, encouraging students and faculty to join the registry. The event has been a staple ever since the passing of former football Head Coach Mike Donnelly who passed away from a short battle with leukemia in 2017. The event consists of student and adult volunteers around campus, swabbing their mouths to be sent to a lab to see if they are a match with someone who is terminally ill with blood cancer.

Merchlinsky is hoping to spend more time on the field this year after suffering a torn ACL during the team’s first scrimmage last year.