If you are attending FC Cincinnati’s final home match of the season on October 1, you will have the opportunity to see if you can Be the Match and save the life of someone needing a marrow or stem cell transplant.

Did you know that every three minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer? Right now, thousands of patients with blood cancers and other deadly diseases are desperately searching for their genetic match - someone willing to donate life-saving blood stem cells to be their cure.

In partnership with Be the Match and the National Marrow Donor Program, volunteers with The Jewish Hospital – Mercy Health will be registering donors to the bone marrow donor registry via either cheek swab at the match or a kit they can take home and send back.

If you’re an adult between the ages of 18 and 40, look for the donor registration table at the Mercy Health Plaza near the south entrance to TQL Stadium. Registration will be open from 6-7:30 p.m. during the October 1 home closer vs. Chicago Fire.

Everyone is welcome to join the registry. There’s an especially great need for more Hispanic adults to register with Be the Match. Blood diseases such as leukemia disproportionately affect the Hispanic population, especially youth who have highest rate of leukemias of all ethnicities—in children, by more than 20%. Hispanic patients on the Be the Match registry only have a 46% likelihood of finding a donor match for the marrow that could potentially save their lives as they battle these diseases.

Anyone who registers with Be the Match will be eligible for one of three raffle prizes offered by FC Cincinnati in partnership with Mercy Health:

  • Soccer ball signed by the team
  • Four tickets to FC Cincinnati’s 2023 season opener
  • FC Cincinnati orange jersey

The Be the Match registry is the world’s largest marrow registry, connecting patients searching for a cure with life-saving bone marrow donors. It could be you who provides it! If you can’t attend the match but still want to register, visit bethematch.org/ and click “donate bone marrow” for details on how to sign up.