Jay Lutz and Keenan Klassen returned to Roundhouse Radio on April 29, 2016, to share the next step in Jay Lutz's journey with leukaemia and the TWU community.
Listen to the interview on Roundhouse Radio's website.The young men first visited Roundhouse Radio on November 23, 2015. Listen here.
The backstory
This story started in September 2015, when a cancer diagnosis sidelined Lutz just days before he was set to begin classes at Trinity Western University. As we reported late last year, however, the TWU community stepped up to show him he was still part of the family.
After hearing about Lutz' diagnosis, Klaassen, a biology student, organized a stem cell drive in his honour. On November 26, 2015, 248 students and community members showed up to join Canadian Blood Services' OneMatch's stem cell database in hopes of finding a match for Lutz (and others like him).
Though the drive didn't ultimately yield a full match for Lutz, he received a donation from his brother, a partial match, in February 2016, and he's now doing well.
TWU and Canadian Blood Services host Give Life Reception
On April 12, 2016, Canadian Blood Services hosted an event honouring TWU's long history of donating to patients in need. Since the beginning of the partnership five years ago, the TWU community has made 738 donations of blood—most from new donors. They've also added many potential stem cell donors to the OneMatch database.
TWU received the Certificate of Recognition Award for their participation and dedication to the organization. Speakers included President Bob Kuhn, TWU alumni Justin Baerg, and Jay Lutz, who shared some of his journey with leukaemia, as well as what the support of the TWU community has meant to him. He captured the highlights in a video, which he shared at the reception.
Photos of the Give Life Reception are available on TWU's Facebook page.