Be The Match

Since I lost a dear friend of mine, Suzanne McDermott, to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2015, I have been an advocate for Be The Match. Be The Match is the largest bone marrow registry, aiding patients with blood cancers and diseases.

From 2015-2017, I worked for Be The Match as a community representative. I organized and planned bone marrow drives in Los Angeles to increase donor registry and awareness. During this time, I took on the role as the in house graphic designer for Be The Match’s west coast team. Here are few of my designs:

Patient Stories Matter
Jazmyne was one of my patients while working at City of Hope hospital in Duarte, CA. Jazmyne was two years old and in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. I worked with her family to host tons of Cuban-focused bone marrow drives in Southern California. We added hundreds of new donors, but none of them matched young Jazmyne’s specific HLA markers in her white blood cells. I reached out to multiple news channels to pitch Jazmyne’s story. With the help of my team at City of Hope, we shared Jazmyne’s story to NBC and Telemundo:
Be The Match: Cuban Donor needs a bone marrow donor to survive

City of Hope Hospital
Once I graduated from Chapman University, I went on to work for City of Hope hospital as a Community Engagement Specialist in the bone marrow department. I registered hundreds of new donors a month to meet a set quarterly goal. My focus was to register a diverse group of donors to offer more donation opportunities for patients in need. During my year at City of Hope, I presented to universities, health care professionals and corporations to raise money and add new donors to Be The Match’s registry. After a year, I felt like my skills in writing were not being used to it’s fullest potential. I decided to move on to pursue a Masters of Science in Technical Writing in order to make a bigger impact.

I encourage anyone interested in becoming a donor to register online: www.bethematch.org