After six years at Mississippi State, Martin Kinsey’s next few months are all about tying up some loose ends.
The MSU graduate student from Pascagoula is wrapping up his course work — just two classes — for his master’s degree in software engineering. He is weighing two potential job offers but confesses he’ll most likely land in Washington, D.C., where he wrote code at the Naval Research Center during a summer internship.
He is also waiting for a phone call that will send him to Birmingham, Alabama, for something that may save the life of a young girl.
Kinsey, 24, much prefers to downplay the heroic aspect of that part of his to-do list, though.
“I’m not the kind of guy that likes being in the spotlight,” he said. “This was just something that, once I became aware of it, I just felt like I should do.”
That part of Kinsey’s story began last September when Mississippi State’s Famous Maroon Band joined university bands from across to country to register its members as bone marrow donors in a campaign called the “Be the Match” registry. Kinsey, who has been in the MSU band since his freshman year, was one of more than 150 MSU band members to sign up. Nationwide, the campaign added more than 2,100 new people to the registry during that drive last fall.
The National Marrow Donor Program operates the drive, which is the world’s largest and most diverse donor registry supporting patients who are battling more than 70 diseases, including leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell disease.
Nationwide, there are more than 18,000 patients in need of a bone marrow or stem cell transplant of whom only about 40 percent will ever be matched with a donor, according to the National Marrow Donor organization.
“When they told us the odds of being selected as a potential match, I more or less forgot about it,” Kinsey said. “The chances of being selected were pretty low. They gave me a membership card when I registered. I stuck it in my wallet and forgot about it.”
Chosen
Then, on June 16, Kinsey was working in Washington when he got a phone call informing him that he was one of 32 of those 2,100 band members identified as a potential donor.
“The phone call lasted probably an hour,” he said. “Most of that was spent explaining the process and what I could expect.”
The first step was moving Kinsey from the ranks of potential donor to being a match for a patient.
“Basically, it was two things,” he said. “First, there was the blood work to determine if there was a match. Then there was a pretty thorough physical to make sure I was fit enough to be a donor.”
A few weeks later, Kinsey was informed he was a donor match for a 14-year-old girl. Though the surgery was originally scheduled in August, it was postponed until further notice because the girl developed an infection.
Other than the recipient’s age and gender, Kinsey said he knows nothing about the person whose life he may be saving.
“What they told me is that, after a year, both the donor and recipient can sign an agreement that allows you to contact each other, but I’m not sure I want to do that,” Kinsey said. “I think if I were the recipient, I would rather focus on continuing to get better. But if she wants to meet me or talk to me, I’m happy to do that. But it’s not really something I feel like I need. I just wanted to help.”
Kinsey’s grandmother died of ovarian cancer when he was 15.
“I guess maybe that played into it a little bit, “he said. “But really, it was just knowing there was a need, being aware of it. …My mom posted a story about me being selected on Facebook. I wasn’t crazy about that. On the other hand, if it makes more people aware that they can register, then it’s worth it.”
‘Something I couldn’t not do’
MSU Associate Director of Bands Craig Aarhus said 94 other MSU band members have signed up.
“We’re really proud of Martin for his willingness to help a person in need of a bone marrow donation,” he said. “We had excellent participation in the drive last year and this year, and we hope that this year’s drive will help identify other potential donors in our band who might be able to assist in the future.”
Kinsey said when he was aware of the opportunity, it was something he could not refuse.
“It was just something I couldn’t not do,” he said.
People can also sign up for the registry by going to www.bethematch.org.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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