Check eligibility
Registries generally accept healthy people roughly 17 to 35; younger donors produce better outcomes. Requirements differ slightly between Canada and the US.
Philanthropy
Our national cause is the blood stem cell registry. It has been since 1996, and it is carried in one brother’s name.
Why this cause
Evan Chen
In 1995, Evan Chen, a brother at our Stanford chapter, was diagnosed with leukaemia.
The fraternity responded by organising a campus-wide typing drive that became the largest bone marrow typing drive in the history of the National Marrow Donor Program and the Asian American Donor Program. Thousands of people were swabbed.
Evan died in 1996. He never found his match.
Every ΛΦΕ chapter has held registry drives in his honour ever since. The fraternity did not choose this cause from a list. It found us.
Patients are most likely to match a donor who shares their ancestry. Asian and other minority patients remain the least likely to find one.
That gap is the whole reason this drive still runs thirty years later. Registries are overwhelmingly white; a patient of Asian descent searching for a match is searching a much smaller pool. Adding one person of underrepresented ancestry to the registry measurably moves the odds for someone.
How to help
Joining the registry takes two minutes
Swab your cheek
That is the entire test. A cheek swab, mailed in or handed to us at a drive. No needles at this stage.
Wait, and answer
Most people are never called. If you are matched, donation is usually a blood draw similar to giving plasma. You can still say no at any point.
In Canada, register through Canadian Blood Services’ Stem Cell Registry. Héma-Québec runs the equivalent registry in Quebec. Eligibility criteria are set by those organisations, not by us.
Our chapter
What Alpha Xi does
The annual registry drive
Our flagship event. We set up on campus, explain what the registry is to people who have never heard of it, and swab everyone eligible who wants to join. Most students have simply never been asked; that turns out to be the entire barrier.
Education first
A signature that comes from someone who doesn’t understand what they signed is worth very little. Brothers are trained to explain the commitment honestly, including the parts that involve a needle later.
Local service
Alongside the registry, the chapter runs and supports service in the Toronto community: fundraisers, volunteer shifts, and collaborations with cultural organisations on campus.
Want us at your event? If your club or faculty society wants to co-host a registry drive, we will bring the volunteers and the training. Get in touch →
You do not have to join the fraternity
to join the registry.
Two minutes. One swab. Do it whether or not you ever rush.