Sophomore promotes bone marrow donor registration in memory of late friend
After the death of her best friend in July, Sam Licari decided to continue working for the causes of leukemia and bone marrow donations.
Licari, a Shelby Township sophomore, organized a drive to register bone marrow donors Tuesday in the Bovee University Center Rotunda.
“I know that’s what he would want, and that smile on his face when I told him I would do it, that just replays in my mind all the time,” she said.
Licari became friends with Kyle Nicholson while they were both attending Eisenhower High School. After graduating together, they both decided to go to Central Michigan University as freshmen in the fall 2010 semester, and were placed in rooms across the hall from each other in Sweeney Hall.
In February of this year, Nicholson was diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia. His hope fell on finding a matching bone marrow donor for a transplant.
After his diagnosis, Licari and 11 of Nicholson’s other friends, dubbed “Team Kyle,” organized several fundraisers and three bone marrow donor registration drives, which registered more than 700 potential donors, and found matches for four leukemia patients needing bone marrow transplants.
“I’m going to try to make this an annual thing,” Licari said of holding registration drives at CMU.
Despite finding three matching bone marrow donors, Nicholson was never healthy enough for a transplant. He died July 7 at age 19.
“He was an absolutely fabulous person who touched people’s lives,” said Elaine Nicholson, Kyle’s mother, in July. “He was a very special person in a positive way.”
Licari said she was with Nicholson the day he died, and until that day she believed he would beat his leukemia.
“I didn’t know this until after he died, but he lied to me about what kind of leukemia he had ... because it was the kind with the worst outlook,” Licari said. “I noticed he was getting worse, but again I never thought he wouldn’t make it through”
Licari said the day Nicholson died was the hardest of her life.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him,” she said. “I try to kind of live my life like, ‘Would Kyle like it if I did this?’”
Licari registers donors for bone marrow transplants through DKMS, a German organization that registers donors around the world. More information can be found at http://getswabbed.org.
Sault Ste. Marie freshman Sam Strahl was one of about 75 new potential donors registered Tuesday.
“I saw chalk on the ground and thought, ‘Why not?’” Strahl said. “My dad’s friend was saved by a bone marrow transplant. I thought if I could do it, then why not? I mean, I don’t need all of it.”
