Normally on an early summer Sunday afternoon you would find Sebastian Pennisi parked up in front of the cricket.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This Sunday was no different, apart from swapping his lounge room for the Lifeblood centre in Wollongong.
Mr Pennisi along with seven teammates from the Wollongong Mustangs gridiron team have rolled up their sleeves to donate blood and signed up for the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry, in the hope of finding a match for Coledale teen Maggie Banyard.
The 14-year-old has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) - a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow and the hunt is on for a matching bone marrow donor.
Thanks to the efforts of Mr Pennisi and his teammates, a wave of extra donors have joined the registry. In the past three weeks 93 people have joined the registry off the back of a push by Maggie's family and friends, a 600 per cent increase. Normally, about 150 to 200 donors join the registry each month across all of NSW.
The registry is particularly missing young men, between the ages of 18 and 35, who make up only four per cent of the registry, despite making for great bone marrow donors.
Jen Coleman-Stone, who has been organising Sunday's donor drive, said the community is pulling out all the stops to increase blood and bone marrow donations.
"We're on a real grassroots push to try and get more people to donate blood because people with cancer need a lot of blood products on their cancer journey and we need to find a bone marrow match for Maggie," she said.
Since Maggie was diagnosed four weeks ago, the northern suburbs and wider Illawarra have rallied to find a match. Stickers have gone up at gigs and the word has been spread via social media.
To become cancer free and return home from hospital, Maggie needs a bone marrow transplant, and her older brother Billy was not a match.
There's hope that a donor could be found locally, as normally 80 per cent of Australians who need bone marrow transplants have to go overseas.
While the search continues for a match for Maggie, the work of Mr Pennisi, his teammates and the wider community has already saved over 200 lives from the blood donated.
"A lot of the blokes have been first time blood donors and were very hesitant," Ms Coleman-Stone said. "But once they heard the story about Maggie and people like Maggie, they rolled up their sleeves, put their arms out, and they've made a big difference to the community."
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Illawarra Mercury website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.