When journalism major Caitlin Emma covered a story her freshman year, she didn’t know it would end up saving a life.

One of Emma’s first assignments as a student reporter for the Daily Campus was writing about a bone marrow drive. After collecting facts and quotes from the drive’s sponsor, Save Giovanni’s Friends, on a whim, Emma decided to complete the donor form and submit a cheek swab for the drive.

“I didn’t know about bone marrow donations,” she says, “but I thought it sounded like a great thing. My best friend’s mom had cancer, which influenced me to want to help out.”

Emma was identified as a match and went on to donate bone marrow. Now she’s encouraging others to sign up as potential donors at a bone marrow drive she’s organizing on April 20, with a table for registering interested donors also placed outside Homer Babbidge Library on April 19 and 20.

Emma’s cells were matched with a child suffering from leukemia through a bone marrow registry organization known as DKMS Americas. DKMS Americas, the world’s largest marrow donor center, is affiliated with the National Marrow Donor Registry Program (NMDP), a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis that operates the Be The Match Registry. It has more than 8 million registered donors, resulting in over 38,000 transplants worldwide.

Emma’s mother, Pamela, says she had reservations about her daughter donating bone marrow: “After DKMS Americas contacted her, I went online and read everything I could about the process, which cleared up my misconceptions.”

Through donor drives, people sign up to see if their blood cells are a match to the 6,000 people seeking transplants at any given time. Only 4 out of 10 patients find matches, and more than 70 percent of patients in need of bone marrow transplants do not find a match within their family.

Michael Guglielmo is the father of Giovanni – the child who inspired Emma to sign up as donor. He and his wife organize bone marrow drives as a part of the NMDP network.

“Since 2007 we’ve added more than 33,000 donors in New England, and matched 31 people,” says Guglielmo, whose son was matched when he was a year old and is now a thriving 3½ year old.

“The need for donors is especially acute for a number of ethnic groups,” says Guglielmo. “Diseases such as sickle cell anemia and some other genetic blood disorders afflict African-Americans, but only 7 percent of donors are of African descent.”

Another UConn student, Syed Rizvi, a senior majoring in physiology and neurobiology, started his own UConn organization, The Bone Marrow Campaign. He has organized several drives over the past two semesters and registered 53 people. Blood types are most likely matched through similar heredity.

“My aunt had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. The NMDP did not have a suitable match for her,” explains Rizvi, “I learned that minority populations comprise only 27 percent of all individuals on the NMDP registry, yet people from all races need bone marrow transplants.”

Donors whose cheek swabs show a possible match then give blood for further testing.

Emma went to Student Health Services to have blood drawn. “I donated through the peripheral blood stem cell technique [a non-invasive procedure and the most common way to donate].”

Emma went to a clinic in Massachusetts for the stem cell donation. To learn more about Emma’s experience, read her article in the Daily Campus or go to her blog.

The whole process from cheek swab to blood tests and stem cell harvesting is completely paid for by DKMS Americas.

“The medical care that DKMS provided to Caitlin was superior,” says Pamela Emma. “It was a great comfort to me to know that she was in good hands every step of the way.”

After the transplant process was complete, Emma wanted to help spread the word about the need for donors and how others can give the gift of life.

“I feel great about the donation and that I was in the right place at the right time,” she says.

Adds Rizvi, “This [donation process] is a rewarding experience because I am able to see firsthand the goodness of students who want to volunteer. There are an incalculable amount of people who care for their fellow man and want to help.”

Emma’s donation has touched her sorority sisters in Alpha Phi and other family members. Her family and ‘sisters’ will assist with the bone marrow drive Emma is organizing.

“[Coach] Geno Auriemma, his wife, and their foundation are also teamed with us,” Emma says. “We’re looking for volunteers to make this one of the largest bone marrow drives at UConn.”

Stop by Emma’s bone marrow drive on April 20 and find out how you can save a life. Details about bone marrow donations are listed on the websites of BeTheMatch and DKMSAmericas.

After the drive, Emma Tweeted that she registered 280 people at the bone marrow drive.