Bone Marrow Drive at Swans

On Thursday 12 December, Swan Districts Football Club held a Bone Marrow Drive for a young man in need of a donor.

Jordan is a 21 year old young man living in Perth, Western Australia and up until June, was living the best part of his life happily and to the fullest. He worked six days a week across two jobs, played his very much loved sport - soccer and like most young guys, enjoyed socialising with mates at any given opportunity. He was also only 6 weeks away from travelling to Europe with his family. Life was good.
That all changed very abruptly in June 2019 when a lingering cold became the catalyst for a routine blood test. The devastating results of that blood test changed Jordan’s life and that of his family in an instant.

Jordan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. AML progresses rapidly, as cells interfere with the production of normal white blood cells (which fight infections) red blood cells (which carry oxygen around the body) and platelets (which thicken or clot the blood to prevent bleeding). His best chance of survival is by way of a bone marrow/stem cell transplant, however no donor currently exists on the international donor registry!

That's where we came in, the perfect opportunity to help with a large number of players who would be the perfect candidates and we were overwhelmed with the response. League coach Adam Pickering first invited Jordan's mum, Diana, to talk to the playing group about the process and explain a little bit more about the type of Leukaemia Jordan is faced with.During training, there were a number of coaches, trainers and injured players who came to swab as well as members of the public. After training, we were bombarded with around about 50 players who had just finished training in 40 degree heat and were willing to help. This was amazing to watch and very overwhelming for all the volunteers. 

We are proud to say that we had a total of 60 people sign up to the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry! We are very proud of the men's playing group and their willingness to help just shows the type of people they are and the type of people we want at our football club.

Thank you to all who registered and if you did not have the opportunity to and would like to get involved, jump online and order your free kit from https://strengthtogive.org.au/. If you would like to know more information on Jordan's Fight Club, please visit www.facebook.com/Jordansfightclub/ .