Did you ever think a swab of your cheek has the information needed to save a person’s life? The family and friends of Debra Boardman, a young mother in Old Lyme, are urging us to ask that question, and to act.

Boardman was diagnosed recently with acute myeloid leukemia. Her best chance to beat this disease is a stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, neither of her sisters were a match, so doctors have turned to marrow donor registries to find a match.

This Sunday, May 24, the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme is hosting a marrow registration drive to find a potential match for Boardman or one of thousands who are diagnosed with a blood cancer. The registry drive, froom noon to 5 p.m., seeks healthy people, age 18 to 44 years old, who are willing to help people in need, should they be a close enough genetic match to provide stem cell or marrow cells. There is no out-of-pocket expense for donors to join the registry; costs for this drive are covered by medical insurance and Michael’s Fund of Falls River, Mass.

A diagnosis like Boardman's presents a dizzying game of numbers and probabilities. Every three minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer, according to Be The Match, the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world. Seventy percent of the time, family members aren't a match for the patient, so doctors must search registries for a match.

There are 24.5 million people already in registries around the world; 12.5 million in Be The Match’s records. Caucasian patients have the highest odds of finding a match — upwards of 90 percent — because more than 60 percent of the registrants have a similar background. More than 30 percent of donors are citizens of other countries — Germany has a strong registry system. Native Americans and African Americans are the least represented in the registries.

But matching tissue types of patients to donors is a complex process, far more complicated than matching blood types, according to Be The Match. Donors have to be young, healthy and willing, too.

“It really is a simple process to see if you’re a match,” says Cristina Balboni, a registry drive organizer with the Rhode Island Blood Center, which is conducting Sunday’s Be The Match drive. “We review the program so people can make an educated decision if they want to join the registry. It takes about 15 minutes to fill out the medical history paperwork and do an inside swab of your cheek.”

It takes about a month for this information to get into the registry and start to be reviewed by doctors searching for potential matches for their patient.

One in 500 people who sign up to be a donor can expect to get matched with a patient, according to Balboni. That means most people who want to help won’t get called to do so, but those who do get matched have the potential to provide what saves someone else’s life.

“We want people to know exactly what they are signing up for,” she says. “If people are called and they are a match, we want them to be able to follow through. If they don’t, it creates a false hope for our patients.”

We hear of marrow transplants and — at least those of us over 44 — think of needles and painful procedures. But, thanks to medical advances, the life-saving cells can be collected through a peripheral blood stem cell donation. This can be done at RI Blood Center, which has a Donor Center in Westerly.

“It’s a boring procedure, about 4 to 5 hours in a chair while a machine takes blood out of one arm, removes the extra cells, and puts the blood back into your other arm,” says Balboni. “For the five days before, you receive a daily injection that stimulates your production of blood cells. Once the extra cells are taken out, you immediately begin to feel better.”

During a few days before the collection, she says the donor might feel much like they might after a flu shot, with some aches as the body’s immune response system responds to the injections.

In 25 percent of the cases, particularly to help pediatric patients, the traditional bone marrow collection from a hip is required. This is done under general anesthesia; only 1 to 4 percent of the marrow is extracted by a needle, and there is no incision or scar, according to Be The Match. Donors might need a couple of days of down time after the procedure.

The biggest challenges face the patient who has been matched. First, the diseased stem or marrow cells are destroyed through chemotherapy. Then the donated cells are introduced and need to multiply to a healthy level in their new home.

But those of us who are still young enough to help Debra and others won’t know how well the cells perform until we try.

IF YOU GO

What: Make a Difference, Be The Match marrow registration drive in honor of Debra Boardman

When: Sunday, May 24, 1-5 p.m. Busy Sunday? Fill out the registration form online and get swab kit in the mail. Go to www.ribc.org/bethematch and enter promo code “match4debra.”

Where: First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, 2 Ferry Road, Old Lyme

Info: See www.bethematch.org, call 800-283-8385, ext. 720