Iowa City police officer organizes bone marrow drive

IOWA CITY - Like many police officers, Mike Smithey has made a career out of helping strangers.

From crime victims to stranded motorists to people just in need of a hand, Smithey usually gets a chance to meet the people he assists. Now, inspired by the story of a college athlete and driven by the struggles of a college friend, Smithey hopes to help a stranger.

'So much of what I do is in response to things,” Smithey said of his career in law enforcement. 'It's helping someone after something bad has happened to them.”

By organizing a bone marrow drive - which starts at 4 p.m. today at the Iowa City Public Library - Smithey hopes to help someone before something bad happens.

Smithey was spurred to action last year by the story of Cameron Lyle, a University of New Hampshire student-athlete, who - on the heels of the America East Conference track and field championships - cut his athletic career short by donating marrow to a young man with leukemia. Donating bone marrow sometimes requires surgery and a recovery time of up to a week or more.

'To make the decision to cut your career short for a complete stranger - even to this day and talking about how I got involved in this, it gives me goose bumps,” Smithey said. 'Here's someone who really has their priorities straight.”

In January, Smithey learned a college friend had a 1-year-old son who needed a bone marrow transplant. The boy received his transplant in February, but that got Smithey moving. He discovered the national bone marrow transplant registry, Be The Match, but was disheartened to find there were no donor drives within 200 miles.

So, Smithey decided to start his own drive. Now, he's hopeful others will join him in registering.

'It's silly there could be a match, it could be me and they just don't know it,” he said. 'Not only silly, but tragic.”

Finding a bone marrow match can be much more difficult than finding a blood donor, said Colleen Reardon, manager of the Donor Services Program at the University of Iowa's Marrow Donor Program. While there is a 1-in-4 chance a sibling would be a match for someone in need, the chances of finding a non-sibling match are far lower, she said.

'About 70 percent of patients who need this therapy to survive will not have a match in the family,” Reardon said. 'They are depending on somebody out there in the world who happens to share their tissue type and joins the registry.”

The UI's marrow program has 11 people awaiting a donor match.

'We've looked worldwide and there's no matched, unrelated donor,” Reardon said. 'These are people from Iowa. These are our neighbors. The need is every day, all the time.”

Healthy people age 18 to 44 are eligible to join the registry. All it takes is a cheek swab. Financial donations - which cover the testing - also will be accepted.

Now that he's motivated to help a stranger, Smithey said he is hopeful others will join him.

'I can't be the only person who thinks, ‘I could get registered.' ”