BOSTON (WHDH) - Celtics star Marcus Smart is stepping up to increase diversity in the bone marrow registry.
Marcus Smart is the face of a new awareness campaign to get more people of color to register as bone marrow and blood stem cell donors to fight cancer and sickle cell disease. By increasing the number of people of color in the registry, it increases the likelihood that everyone fighting these illnesses can find a donor match.
This cause is personal for Smart, who lost both his brother and mother to cancer.
“My mom was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and she lost that battle coming up on four years now,” Smart said. “I lost my oldest brother to lung cancer when I was very young, and so for me, this is very personal, it hit home.”
7’s Amaka Ubaka sat down with Smart to talk about what this cause means to him. The full interview will air Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 9 and 10 p.m.
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