Giving on and off the field / Cape grad, Villanova star donates marrow for girl
(Source: The Press of Atlantic City
Appeared: May 7, 2010)
VILLANOVA, Penn. - Matt Szczur did what most freshman football players do when they first get to Villanova University -- he registered to become a bone marrow donor.
He didn't think much of it at the time and never expected the phone call he received last fall when he was told someone needed his help. But on Tuesday, he sat in a chair at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia with needles in both arms donating his peripheral blood cells to a little girl.
"I wasn't even sure what the donor program was," Szczur said during a news conference Thursday on campus. "I was just going through the motions and getting my cheeks swabbed."
The 2007 Lower Cape May Regional High School graduate learned he was a match for a 19-month-old girl with leukemia in November. He doesn't know anything more about her because of the National Marrow Donor Program's confidentiality clauses.
Szczur joined the registry of the Be The Match foundation during a drive hosted on campus. He never thought he would get called since there is a 1-in-80,000 chance of being a match.
Villanova football coach Andy Talley has hosted an annual drive for 18 years and reached out to campuses in the region to do the same. School officials estimated more than 20,000 people have joined the registry through Villanova's program.
"I have no doubt in my mind this is going to work," Szczur said of the procedure. "I don't even think about something like that (not working). I don't think it's really courageous just because I think if you had the opportunity to do something like this, you would jump on it."
Margate native and Holy Spirit High School graduate Michael Holland donated his bone marrow in 2005 after he enrolled and played football at Villanova.
Szczur's initial procedure was scheduled for Dec. 16, 2009, just two days before the Football Championship Series national championship. Szczur would have missed the biggest game of his collegiate career because it meant giving a little girl a chance to live.
But Szczur, the 2007 Press Athlete of the Year, got to play when the procedure was pushed back. He was named the MVP after rushing for a career-high 159 yards and accumulating 270 all-purpose yards in a 23-21 win over Montana for the Wildcats for their first FCS title in program history.
The feeling Marc Szczur gets when he watches his son compete is nearly indescribable. When he saw Matt win the national championship, his heart raced and his hair stood upright on the back of his neck. He was so full of pride, he found it difficult to breathe.
But this past week, Marc couldn't find the words to explain his emotions to his 20-year-old his son. This was bigger than anything he ever felt while watching Matt play football or baseball.
"Take everything I felt in that game and multiply it," Marc, 52, said. "I told Matt the only way he will ever know how I feel is for him to have a son just like him. Hopefully, he will have one."
The procedure began last Friday when Szczur received his first of five injections of a drug that would force his body to produce more white blood cells. A nurse came to his room at school to give him the medication. From that point, he couldn't do any strenuous activity because one of the side effects of the medicine is an enlarged spleen.
Even though the procedure was explained to his father, Matt, and mother, Kathy, none of them was entirely prepared. They were all nervous.
Matt sat in a chair where his left arm had to remain still for nearly three hours. A needle was inserted in his arm from which blood was taken out and filtered through a machine the size of a 25-inch television set. A bag was on top of the machine that had three different colored areas, Marc Szczur said. The bottom layer was dark red, the middle was salmon colored and the top layer was clear.
The blood returned through an IV into his other arm as "Dumb and Dumber" played in the background.
"This doesn't even come to close to all the touchdowns, home runs and hits he gets," Marc said. "When you think of people saving lives, you think about police officers or firefighters. This is what he's doing now."
Matt missed last weekend's baseball series with Georgetown and will be out at least another 10 days. Szczur will still travel with Villanova this weekend when they compete against Rutgers in a three-game series.
There are concerns his baseball stock will drop by taking two weeks off. Szczur, who leads Villanova with a .435 batting average, was drafted in high school by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 38th round in 2007. Szczur is a converted catcher who has power, speed and can hit for average.
He is eligible to get drafted again this year. The MLB draft is held from June 7 to 9. Many baseball experts expect the junior outfielder to get drafted much earlier this time and he could start his professional baseball career instead of returning to school.
"I talked to people about that and they said with all the character issues in sports these days, (baseball teams) wouldn't bat an eye for this kind of stuff," Matt said. "It's more about character than anything else. It will really might help me. I am not worried at all. Hopefully, when I can get back I will keep my batting average."
If Matt wasn't already a celebrity at his college, he is well on his way now. Szczur was voted Athlete of the Year by the school's student newspaper, and he has received fan mail at his home on Seashore Road in the Erma section of Lower Township.
Matt is allowed to contact the recipient's family through a liaison, but cannot write anything that will say who he is, where he lives or any type of information that would give away his identity for at least one year. After that, Szczur can reveal himself to the family and the Szczurs hope to have a relationship with them.
"It would be unbelievable to meet this girl," Matt said. "Maybe one day she can come see me play."
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