Senior Jake Roth Donates Life-Saving Cells Through Be the Match
The Castleton University football program's culture of "having your teammates' best interests at heart" is something that head coach Tony Volpone has worked to instill in his student-athletes since he arrived in 2014. His players, however, often take that mantra one step further — frequently putting the best interests of the community at heart.
Senior Jake Roth, a Health Science major, embodied that philosophy this month, donating peripheral blood stem cells to help save the life of a 55-year-old man with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia — a cancer where bone marrow creates abnormal white blood cells. Roth is now forever linked with that man due to the involvement of the Castleton football program with Be the Match, the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world, as well as the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation.
"We became involved with Be the Match through an initial contact we had with long-time Villanova football coach Andy Talley," says Volpone. "Andy has really been a driving force behind many bone marrow drives and I talked with him soon after arriving here at Castleton which led to us getting involved in Be the Match."
That involvement also led to Roth being discovered as a match for a patient in need. Each year, Castleton football players are added to the registry of potential donors by doing a test swab on the inside of their cheek to collect a sample. If a person is identified as a potential match, a second swab is done to confirm the match. The next step involves the donor meeting with doctors to ensure they are physically healthy and able to donate, and, once cleared by the doctor, a donation day can be arranged to donate either marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.
"Once you are at the hospital the donation center works as hard as they can to make sure you are as comfortable as possible during this process," Roth said . "To donate, they have developed a method that is nearly painless, where a needle is placed in each arm and the cells are extracted through a blood apheresis machine."
Not only is an experience like this fulfilling for the student-athletes in knowing they helped save a life, oftentimes it's personal. "A former player of ours — Christian Procida — spoke up one day at our practice about how his father's life was saved through a similar program, and it drove our initiative even further," said Volpone. For Roth, the process hit close to home as well.
"I feel like this has been a wonderful experience for me," he said. "My mom has actually battled cancer three separate times in her life and is a warrior and a survivor of all three, and I feel that this was my chance to pay that forward and give someone's father a second chance at their life."
Volpone is proud that his players volunteer so willingly and so selflessly—with Be the Match as well as their many other community service initiatives throughout the year. "When a player does something like this, it validates everything you teach," he said. "Whether our guys are a match or not is out of our hands—that comes down to science and a higher power. The fact that they are so heavily involved in this initiative is satisfaction enough."
The message has surely gotten through to Volpone's team year in and year out. After the 2018 season, then-senior Wyatt Prue was discovered as a match for a 68-year-old grandmother and donated without hesitation.
"Ever since Be the Match came to Castleton to spread their message, many of my teammates have expressed their excitement and willingness to become involved," said Roth. "I feel that the mission of Be the Match coincides with the core value coach has instilled in having your teammates' best interests at heart. Even though the person in need is not our direct teammate, having another's best interests in mind is important to everyone here."
Roth also encouraged others to get involved, either with Be the Match or in other ways around their community. "While talking to [the staff at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center], I learned that there are many people waiting to get the call that there is a donor available for them," he said. "I would encourage everyone to do something in order to help someone in need. It does not have to be as far as donating bone marrow, but every act of kindness towards another will help the world be a better place."