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COURTESY Thom Kendall Photography

University of Massachusetts redshirt sophomore defensive back Ryan Carter will undergo surgery Wednesday. Carter will have bone barrow extracted with the hope of saving the life of a 5-year-old boy.

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University of Massachusetts redshirt sophomore defensive back Ryan Carter will undergo surgery Wednesday to have his bone marrow extracted with the hope of saving the life of a 5-year-old boy.

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COURTESY Thom Kendall Photography

University of Massachusetts redshirt sophomore defensive back Ryan Carter will undergo surgery Wednesday to have his bone marrow extracted with the hope of saving the life of a 5-year-old boy.

AMHERST - Ryan Carter doesn't know who the boy is, where he lives, or almost anything else about him. He knows only that the 5-year-old is sick and Carter, a third-year sophomore defensive back for the University of Massachusetts football team, today will do what he can to save his life.

Like almost every member of the Minutemen, Carter is registered as a potential donor in the National Bone Marrow Registry. The Maryland native didn't think much about it when he swabbed the inside of his cheek two years ago as part of the annual drive by UMass to sign people to the registry.

Wearing their jerseys on the Campus Center concourse, the new players took their swabs and filled out the paperwork, while their older teammates solicited volunteers from the rest of the student body. UMass is one of more than 30 football programs around the country that participate in the "Get in the Game - Save a Life" program that annually adds thousands of names to the registry.

Carter didn't expect to be a match. Most people in the database are never called on to donate. But in September, Carter got an email telling him that he was a potential match and he was directed to the Rhode Island Blood Center's website for further information. The center is affiliated with the "Get in the Game" program.

"At first I was shocked. Is this real? Did I really get chosen?" Carter said. "Then I started getting almost excited. I get to save somebody's life. I get to be a part of helping this young kid live. ... There's seven billion people in the world and this one person needs something that I have. It really opens your eyes that this person could live or die depending on me."

All Carter knows is that the recipient is a 5-year-old boy. Bone marrow transplants are typically used to battle blood cancers - leukemia or Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - and it's often the last resort.

"Nobody does a transplant saying, 'Hey, we'll try this. If that doesn't work, we'll try something else,'" said Jen St. Peter, an account executive for the Rhode Island Blood Center. "A marrow transplant is usually a patient's last option when chemo or radiation haven't worked or are not an option for some reason. It's usually their last chance at a cure or living a normal life."

Getting involved

A sibling usually presents the best chance for a match. If the candidate has no siblings or they aren't a match, he or she goes to the bone marrow registry.

According to St. Peter, there are 9 million registered potential donors in the United States and another 6 million registered with cooperative registries around the world. Once people are registered, they remain in the database until they turn 61.

"You're most likely to find a donor who has the same heritage that you do," St. Peter said. "Statistically speaking, there's a 93 percent chance that someone of Caucasian heritage will find a match in the registry. Someone who is multiracial, Asian, Hispanic or African-American, their percentages go down."

The diverse racial makeup of college football teams make them an especially valuable group to add to the registry, as only 28 percent of the people registered are non-Caucasians, according to the Be the Match Registry. Only about five out of every 10 patients who are in need of a transplant will find a match and there are about 10,000 new patients every year.

Villanova coach Andy Talley has been the driving force behind the involvement of college football programs. Villanova has been holding marrow drives since 1992. Its success prompted Talley to encourage other Colonial Athletic Association teams, including UMass, to get involved. In 2011, 34 college programs registered potential donors.

The Minutemen, who will have another drive in May, held their first one at the spring football game in 2007 and have moved the now-annual event to the Campus Center to reach more people.

"We moved it up on campus to get more foot traffic," said former UMass coach Kevin Morris, who actively promoted the event. "You're trying to not only get your football players, but your whole campus involved to get as many people in the database as possible. The college campuses are very diverse, and you're getting a young healthy person."

St. Peter said the involvement of football teams has given the registry a big lift.

"It's a huge help to have 75 to 100 guys at one time. There's a very big need for younger donors," St. Peter said. "The athletic communities, particularly the football teams, have been wonderful because they are very diverse. They're also very competitive. When they hear that another school near them is doing a drive, they want to get more people in the registry than the rival school. That helps, too. Most of the athletes are pretty outgoing and willing to go up and talk to people and encourage them to come register."

A small number of UMass athletes, including some from other sports, have been preliminary matches, but only Carter has advanced all the way to a transplant.

After filling out a health questionnaire, he gave a blood sample at UMass Health Services. It was then sealed in a specially designed envelope that keeps blood cold and sent to Rhode Island to be tested.

The results, a physical and more blood work all cleared him for surgery today at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Saving a life

There are two methods of extracting marrow, and one is selected based on the specific recipient's needs. The more common method is similar to donating platelets, when tubes are connected from a machine to each arm of the donor. Blood flows out of one arm to the machine, which extracts marrow-producing cells and returns the blood into the other arm.

Carter will give in the second, more invasive way when a hole is drilled in the base of his spine and the marrow is withdrawn through a special syringe. Carter can choose to have general anesthesia or only the lower half of his body anesthetized.

"I think I'm going to be knocked out completely," he said. "It's going to be two doctors working on both sides of my back. They're going to make incisions on my lower back on either side. They said they're going to use a drill to make a hole in my bone. Then they're going to put needles inside to suck out the bone marrow that they need.

"It would be more scary if I was awake," he added. "Either way, I'm not going to be able to feel it."

Carter said he does not expect to need a long recovery.

"It's going to feel like I tried to pick up a box that was really heavy and strained my back really bad," he said. "I won't be back to 100 percent for about two weeks."

It takes between four and six weeks for marrow to fully replenish.

Carter had no hesitation about his surgery, which will last 45 minutes to an hour.

"You could be the only person in the world in the amount of time that they have that could help that kid live. I'll be glad when it's over so we can get the process going to help the child," said Carter, who has been fortunate that cancer hasn't touched his immediate family or friends. "I'm not scared or nervous. I just want to hurry up and get it to this kid so he can live and feel better."

After the transplant, Carter and his marrow recipient will be allowed to contact each other only through cards and letters sent through the registry for a year.

"After one year, if both parties agree to release their information, they can have direct contact," St. Peter said. "It's to keep the buffer zone to make sure somebody isn't guilted into giving an extra donation or isn't asked for a monetary contribution. It's really to protect the donor and the recipient."

Carter encouraged people to join the registry.

"If somebody needs your help, just do it. They might not be able to find anybody else who's a perfect match," Carter said. "People probably think it's a huge process that you have to go through when it's really not. If they realized it was as easy as it is, a lot more people would participate."

Talley said he expects Carter will find the experience rewarding.

"That is the greatest thing he'll ever do in his life," the Villanova coach said. "There's a UMass player (Victor Cruz) that just won a Super Bowl, but that is minor compared to this player, who is going to save a life."

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.