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Bone Marrow Drive Combines Need With Rock N' Roll

DENVER (CBS4)- Rock 'n roll teamed up with a Denver metro area hospital on Wednesday to encourage more people to donate bone marrow.

"Love, Hope, Strength Foundation" was at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center to increase registration, but also to celebrate the more than 2, 011 patients who have received bone marrow transplants at the hospital.

In many cases, those patients don't know the recipients and simply want to say thanks.

"It's the gift of life. People don't appreciate that these diseases exist and the only cure is through the donor process. It's incredible that people are willing to do that because it means an incredible amount of people receive those donations," said non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma patient Hollis Pence.

The Love, Hope, Strength Foundation also uses music and events like "Film on the Rocks" to raise awareness and register potential donors.

The process to see if you're a match takes only a few seconds and a cheek swab. Donating bone marrow is similar to donating blood platelets.

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