Asha registered to be a donor in 2009 at a student donor drive at UC Berkeley. At that time, she had little idea of what she wanted to study, but knew she wanted to impact the lives of others in a positive way. A simple cheek swab paved the way; in 2011, Asha was contacted by the registry and notified that she was a match for a young father of two. She eagerly took the lab tests needed in preparation for the donation but was later notified that the intended recipient no longer needed the donation. Asha was contacted again in 2012 about being a match with another recipient and ended up donating peripheral blood stem cells at UCLA, where she was a new grad student. After a day in the hospital, Asha’s roommates scooped her up, fed her an In-N-Out grilled cheese, and she was back to school the next day!
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