Approaching two weeks into Duquesne University’s offseason winter workouts, Ayden Garnes is a bit sore and somewhat fatigued.
While his football teammates are feeling the burn from their work in the weight room, Garnes’ discomfort is of an entirely different nature.
On Jan. 4, he underwent a surgical operation in Boston to donate bone marrow to a young woman battling blood cancer.
All the 19-year-old Garnes, a Philadelphia native, knows about the woman who is benefiting from his donation is she is 27 years old and moved to the U.S. earlier in life.
Now that Garnes is back and settled in Pittsburgh post-operation, the redshirt freshman defensive back is steadily working his way back to fully participating in Duquesne’s offseason program.
In the greater scheme of things, Garnes appreciates the trade-off of his relatively minor inconvenience compared to the impact he made on a person he never has met.
“I’m going through a little pain right now, but she’s alive,” Garnes said. “It’s something that changed my whole narrative of just seeing life. … I play football. I was hurting all season, but I can hurt for three weeks and save a life.”
1/4/23 I was able to do something many can’t say they did, I SAVED SOMEONES LIFE, i appreciate all that prayed for me and my family.. #Savealife #Bethematch #Influencer pic.twitter.com/Y1XdXlMVMn
— Ayden Garnes???? (@AydenGarnes1) January 4, 2023
In collaboration with former Villanova coach Andy Talley, whose Bone Marrow Foundation recruits college football teams across the nation to host “Get in the Game” donor events benefiting the Be the Match registry, Duquesne coach Jerry Schmitt has had Duquesne participate for the last 13 years.
Every spring, Schmitt recruits his players and as many students on campus as possible to get their cheeks swabbed, after which every individual’s samples are processed over the following months.
Talley, a 2020 College Football Hall of Fame inductee who led Villanova from 1985-2016, helps spearhead bone marrow drives with 190 football programs across the country.
His foundation estimates it has helped register more than 155,000 people since its inception in 2010. As a result, nearly 900 transplants have been performed thanks to identifying viable donors.
Given that the most ideal age group for bone marrow donations is between 18-25, focusing efforts where there is a surplus of young people has obvious benefits.
“We’re putting potential donors in the most perfect matchup place you could find donors: on a college campus,” Talley said.
At Duquesne, Schmitt estimated he has had just short of 5,000 registrants, 23 of which matched to become donors.
The odds of a registrant’s cheek swabbing leading to them becoming a match to be donor are low. It gets even tougher when it comes to convincing those who match to agree to undergo the necessary surgical procedure.
“There’s a lot of donors that are called and say no,” Talley said. “Fifty percent of the people that are called, that are on the donor list, say no, obviously for a variety of reasons. … In the case of Ayden, he couldn’t say yes fast enough. He’s a great kid from a great family, and when you get people like that, it’s awesome.”
The gravity of the entire process, concluding with Garnes’ donor having already undergone a successful operation of her own to receive his bone marrow, is not lost on him.
“It’s changed the way I see things because I know she’s going through something right now,” Garnes said. “I’m going through a little pain right now, but she’s alive.”
“ … She’s not hurting anymore. She’s not sick or sitting at a hospital anymore for nine to 10 months. She can go home and see her family.”
In Schmitt’s nearly decade-and-a-half of registering people at Duquesne, Garnes is the first football player he has had who matched with someone and underwent the necessary operation to save a life.
“It’s hard to find enough good things to say and the right words because he’s an outstanding young man,” Schmitt said. “He’s the type of young man that you want to be a student-athlete as far as the football team and also part of your campus community.”
Garnes said he would love to meet the woman who received his bone marrow donation. That might never happen, though. Near-complete confidentiality between donor and recipient exists through the entire process, and Garnes will only have a chance to meet her if she agrees.
Still, he is hopeful. Talley, who has been around that block himself, will never forget those moments.
“I can tell you, I’ve been on the end of that several times. It’s a beautiful thing,” Talley said. “You’re looking at someone who saved your life. When those two embrace, I’ve gotta tell you — the tears are flowing.”
