Saving lives through bone marrow donation

Be the match. Save a life

Join the marrow registry today and join Project 44’s mission to save 44 lives. All it takes is a quick cheek swab, and you could have the chance to save a life.

Drive the conversation

Donate to Project 44 and support our efforts to save lives by fostering a sense of moral obligation and willingness to support and join the bone marrow registry.

Host a drive

Want to join the Project 44 team? Raising awareness for the national bone marrow registry and hosting a drive is the best way you can help! Contact us today to get started!

ESPN's Project 44 Feature

ESPN ran a feature of Andrew and Project 44 helping to drive over 6,000 new registrants to the Be The Match database.

Watch

The Perfect Match

Meet Deegan and Chase, Project 44’s first life-saving match. A former Butler Basketball teammate of Andrew Smith, Chase Stigall was among the first to join the bone marrow registry through Project 44. Four months later, he got the call and helped save the life of four-year-old Deegan Scott.

Read the report

Andrew's Memory Lives On

Butler University honored Project 44, Samantha Smith, Chase Stigall, Deegan Scott and his parents at halftime of Butler’s Big East game against Providence on February 17, 2018. Gregg Doyel covered the event for the Indianapolis Star and wrote about it in February 2018.

About Project 44

Launched in 2016, Project 44 was created in honor of the late Andrew Smith. Wearing the #44, Andrew was a beloved, standout member of Butler’s two-time NCAA Finals basketball team. Having been a personal recipient of a bone marrow transplant in November of 2015, Andrew and his wife Samantha were blessed with an additional three months together to make and share memories that would last well beyond Andrew’s final days on earth. On January 12, 2016, at the age of 25, Andrew passed away following a two-year battle with cancer.

Committed to carrying out Andrew’s selfless work, Project 44’s initial goal is to save 44 lives. With a 1:430 ratio of registrants to matches, 18,920 new registry members are needed. Now an incorporated 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Project 44’s enhanced broader mission is to save lives by fostering a mainstream sense of moral obligation and willingness to support and join the bone marrow registry.

#44, Our Inspiration

Andrew’s passion for the bone marrow registry was ignited when, after learning he would need a bone marrow transplant, a match would not be so easily found if the roles were reversed and it was his wife Samantha needing a match. As a male of European decent, Andrew was quickly matched with a donor. But due to limitations in the registry’s ethnically diverse membership, many patients with varied ethnic backgrounds would die waiting for a match. This injustice did not sit well with Andrew, so in the midst of his own battle, he and Samantha made it their mission to raise critical awareness for Be The Match, the nation’s largest bone marrow registry.