MORE INFORMATION

WESTERVILLE, Ohio - Prior to this Saturday's regular-season finale football game, both Otterbein University and Marietta College will be teaming up to assist the fight against blood cancer.

The Cardinals and Pioneers are joining forces with "Be The Match" to create the "Save A Friend Challenge," in correlation with the many friends we are hoping to save, the ones who have already been saved and the ones who will be saved from this effort.

Otterbein will host its Marrow Donor Registry Drive in the campus center on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone ages 18-44 will be able to register rather quickly and will only need to provide a simple cheek swab. The drive is open to the general public with the goal of registering as many 18-44 individuals as possible.

Kerry Jean (Friend) Waddle, an Otterbein alumnae and wife of Marietta head coach Andy Waddle, has already been saved by this effort. The Waddle's have since helped register more than 1,000 potential bone-marrow donors through "Be The Match."

The "friend" both schools are hoping to save this year is DiMantae Bronaugh, a former teammate of Marietta starting quarterback Darrien Fields at Aliquippa High School in Pennsylvania, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in August of 2015. His best chance for a cure is a bone marrow or stem-cell transplant.

 "Be The Match" is a nonprofit organization operated by the National Marrow Donor Program in the United States. Approximately 70 percent of the time, a patient who needs a transplant cannot find a match within their own family. When that is the case, doctors turn to the national registry database to fund an unrelated donor match.

The Otterbein football program has been no stranger to helping in the fight against forms of cancer. Head Coach Tim Doup and his Cardinals have a longstanding relationship with the Lauren's First and Goal Foundation, hosting an Ohio Camp each summer that has now raised over $103,000 for pediatric brain tumor research since the inaugural event in 2010.

Whether you are a fan of Otterbein or Marietta, please help us support this cause come Wednesday. Be The Match, and Save a Friend!