Give A Spit

Give A Spit is a group in Connecticut that recruits spit donors to help people diagnosed with leukemia and other diseases. We go around public events and try to recruit potential donors.

Leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood, kills more children each year than any other disease. People with leukemia receive a bone marrow transplant which is a life-saving treatment. These patients undergo chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to destroy their diseased marrow.

However, chemotherapy and radiation may cause other cells to get destroyed, so after treatment, patients are weak and on the verge of dying. Therefore, a donor’s healthy blood-forming cells are given directly into the patient’s bloodstream, where they can begin to function and multiply to save the patient. Doctors can test the blood type, just by looking at your saliva cells. They can try to find a match to the patient’s.

For a patient’s body to accept these healthy cells, the patient needs a donor who is a close match. Seventy percent of patients do not have a donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match Registry to find an unrelated donor.