Amoroso the Newest Lute Hero Stepping up as Stem Cell Donor

By Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

Helping others is literally in the blood at Pacific Lutheran University. In early April, football’s Cameron Amoroso became the latest Lute to donate stem cells to a blood cancer patient in need, becoming the fifth student-athlete to step up and donate since the University began the National Marrow Donor Program drive during Division III week in 2022.

The sophomore and Winlock, Washington native first joined the registry last year, following in the footsteps of his Mom who has been on the registry almost her entire life.

I thought it was awesome! My mom has been on the registry her whole life basically, like as soon as she could. She’s never gotten the call, so I thought this was a great opportunity and I wanted to go do that,

Cameron Amoroso

A cotton swab as a freshman turned into a phone call this February that he’d been a donor match. Blood work followed to confirm the compatibility before getting injections to boost his stem cell count. Two weeks ago it was donation day, heading up to Seattle for the procedure that look around 90 minutes.

Amoroso’s heroics is quickly become the norm in Luteville, becoming the fifth Lute student-athlete and the third football player to match and donate lifesaving stem cells to a cancer patient in need. Earlier this spring, baseball’s Carson Burke traveled to Houston after a big weekend series to donate while baseball’s Rowan Amann ’25, and football’s Erik Bainter ’23 and Jai Alapai ’24 have all been stem cell donors over the past few years.

And while Lute student-athletes donating life saving stem cells is quickly becoming the norm, it’s far from it, with the odds of finding a match around one-in-200.

PLU’s outsized success stems from the donor drive that was started in the spring of 2022 as a joint venture between Head Football Coach Brant McAdams and Head Baseball Coach Nolan Soete. The event has been held ever since with over 700 PLU students registering as donors over the past four years.

Life is full of amazing opportunities of you have the right perspective. Cam was given an amazing opportunity and said yes to a life changing stem cell donation. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s joined an elite group of alumni across the world who have given blood cancer patients extended life,

Brant McAdams

The PLU community has been amazing rallying around this cause. Three football players, two baseball players, and more, have lived out PLU’s mission of care beautifully.

NMDP is a global nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to finding blood stem cell donors for patients with blood cancers and other life-threatening blood disorders. Patients with blood cancers have only a 30 percent chance of being a match with a family member which makes anonymous donors like Amoroso vital to saving lives.

“I think everybody should join (the registry). It's a great opportunity to save someone's life and it doesn't take much out of you. It's just a one day donation, everything is paid for, and they set up your appointments so you don't really have to do anything,” said Amoroso.

To learn more about the National Marrow Donor Program and how you can make an impact, visit nmdp.org.