Algonquin’s Student Commons was home to a stem cell donations clinic on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
Participating students were treated to a questionnaire followed by a mouth swab, all to potentially save someone’s life in the future.
“The purpose of the clinic was to inform people able the importance of stem cell donation and to get people signed up on to the registry,” explained Jordan Lee, a second-year practical nursing student who provided assistance at the clinic.
Stem research can be a controversial topic. Lee emphasized the importance of the clinic.
“Some of the good things that came out of it were giving proper education on the topic, getting more people on the registry which has a greater chance of finding donors and just making people aware of how easy and important of a cause it is,” Lee said.
Second-year registered nursing student, Joel Hayward, elaborated a little more on what stem cells are.
“Well basically they are the original cells that mitotically divide to renew your other cells throughout adult life,” he said. “Say you have a genetic disease that is affecting a specific type of cell. They can use stem cells to kind of backtrack.”
In Hayward’s words, stem cells “are the original cells.”
Student feedback was positive.
“I signed up three or four years ago, I donate blood so I figured I might as well become a donor for stem cells too,” said second-year registered a nursing student, Sara Noyes.