Floyd's 99 Barbershop Hosts Bone Marrow Registry Drive
By Joel Hillan
DENVER (CBS4)- Floyd's 99 Barbershop started in Denver in 1999 off Broadway and 10th. Now the company has 110 locations in 12 states. Saturday they came together for Coloradans with blood cancer.
April Anderson is the manager of the Floyd's 99 Barbershop off Colfax Avenue and York Street in Denver; she spent the busy day asking customers if they might be willing to join the bone marrow registry.
"It's nice that people are willing to do it," she said.
Adding that she knows that while the process of registering isn't painful, the actual donation can be.
She feels a sense of pride, too, that the company she works for is so willing to help others.
"It's kind of cool that we can give back to people who have helped us out of the past 17 years we've been open," she said.
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Malcolm Mulroney arrived for a haircut and decided to join the registry while he waited for his barber to become available.
"I try to donate when I can, blood, I've never done bone marrow before and this seemed like a great opportunity," he said.
In just a couple of minutes, Mulroney had filled out the form and completed the swab.
"It's easy to do, it doesn't take anything away from you and if you're a match you can save someone's life," he said.
Thousands of people struggling with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma need a bone marrow transplant to survive.
Although the bone marrow registry has millions of people on it, patients can have a difficult time finding a match. Events like this help increase those chances of a match.
LINK: Floyd's 99 Barbershop: Delete Blood Cancer
Joel Hillan anchors CBS4 This Morning on weekends as well as reports stories for CBS4 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @joelhillan.