Clemson PhD student donates peripheral blood stem cells to help save lives

Clemson doctoral student Erika Hwang is helping save a total stranger by donating some of her peripheral blood stem cells.

Hwang is working with Gift of Life to help save a man suffering from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia by donating peripheral blood stem cells. Her first donation was in December 2022. She is scheduled to make a second donation to the same patient on Sept. 11.

Peripheral blood stem cell transplants are used to treat blood cancers such as leukemia. The stem cells help restore the body’s ability to make blood cells after high-dose chemotherapy or radiation. Bone marrow transplants also are used to treat blood cancers.

“We are hoping with one more full donation, he will be cancer free,” Hwang said.

Donating is painless and takes just a few hours. The first step is to participate in a donor drive. Since her first donation, Hwang was able to host a donor drive through the Clemson Animal and Veterinary Sciences Graduate Student Association. During this drive, 50 new potential donors were registered.

“College students are among the healthiest age group and make up the ideal age group for stem cell and bone marrow donors,” she said. “So, it is important to expose them to the registry and provide them an opportunity to join.”

Hwang is searching for ways she can help more people. She is working with the Animal and Veterinary Sciences Graduate Student Association to host another donor drive on campus Oct. 2 and 3.

“I didn’t donate because I wanted other people to give me a pat on the back for ‘doing something good’,” she said. “I donated to give someone a chance to live.”

To read more about Hwang’s experience, go to https://bit.ly/45HSTBw.

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Donor Drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 2-3, 2023