The University of South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley to co-sponsor The PYNK Summer Sizzle, a Be the Match © Donor event in Columbia, South Carolina to increase bone marrow donation by African Americans. Be The Match is answering the call to increase the number of African American donors nationwide through local events like the PYNK Summer Sizzle.
The event will be sponsored by The Salon by PYNK and feature food by 27 Pancakes with music by DJ Puff. The PYNK Summer Sizzle will be Saturday, July 10, 2021 from 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM at 2911 Millwood Avenue, Columbia, SC 29209. The event is free and open to the public.
“I believe in giving back to the community in which I do business and this one is personal,” says Jessica Reese, owner, Salon by Pynk and friend to Coach Dawn Staley and Tracey Underwood.
Coach Staley knows all too well the need of African American donors in the Be the Match registry since her sister, Tracey Underwood’s leukemia diagnosis in 2020. Underwood needed a bone-marrow transplant. Three of Underwood’s four siblings were tested including Staley but only her brother Lawrence was a 10/10 match for compatible stem cells needed. While Underwood benefitted from a donation by a family member everyone is not as fortunate. Now Staley wants others, especially in the African American community, to have a better chance at survival.
