MONROE - Signing up to be a bone marrow donor takes only 5 minutes and a little spit, but it could save the life of someone like Monroe's Greg Studer.

Locals won't have far to travel, either. Two bone marrow donor drives are being held this week in Monroe, on Monday, Sept. 10, and again Saturday, Sept. 15.

About six years ago, Studer underwent a series of failed treatments to rid his body of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer cells. Chemotherapy wasn't working. The medication Rituxan wasn't working, and neither did full-body radiation.

He even tried an experimental therapy called MGD. He jokes the letters stand for Miller Genuine Draft, but really it's a pharmaceutical drug called motexafin gadolinium.

"That literally turned my skin green. I did four cycles of that, and then I started getting blisters all over my hands and my mouth," he said.

Finally, doctors tried the last resort: a bone marrow transplant.

"They couldn't find a match for me fast enough," he said. Instead, doctors tried a risky auto stem cell transplant procedure that involved pulling out all of Studer's stem cells, cryogenically freezing them and then reinserting them into his bone marrow.

The risk in a self-transplant is that lingering cancer cells could reinfect the person. Studer got lucky. He's been in remission ever since.

Now he and two others with blood cancers in Monroe - Miriam O'Neill and Lester Nider - are advocating for people to sign up as potential bone marrow donors.

The chance of finding a match among bone marrow donors is much slimmer than among blood donors. There are only four major blood types but thousands of tissue characteristics in bone marrow cells.

When doctors search for a bone marrow donor, they need to find at least eight shared tissue characteristics - and there are more than 4,000 known characteristics that can occur in millions of combinations, according to DKMS, an organization that helps match donors and cancer patients. (DKMS started in Germany, so the organization's acronym stands for the original name in German.)

The more people sign up as donors, the better the chances. Registering as a donor involves filling out a form and swabbing the mouth four times for 10 seconds each. Donors must be 18 to 55, in good general health and weigh at least 110 pounds.

"It's so easy to do," said O'Neill, a soccer coach at Monroe High School. She was diagnosed about five years ago with a very rare type of blood cancer, myelofibrosis. She's not yet at the stage to make a decision about a potential transplant, but she's volunteering both days in Monroe "out of solidarity.

"I really thought I should do something," she said. "Six out of 10 people never find a match when they desperately need transplants. It is a last resort. It is an extremely serious step to take. They're going to die if they don't get it."

Studer likens the bone marrow to the soil in a field. Like a field that processes nutrients, the bone marrow grows the blood cells that support our bodies. When it's weakened, the marrow is sapped of nutrients like an over-farmed field.

Studer, who turns 51 this month, said his life now "couldn't be going any better." He works out two hours per day almost every day of the week at the YMCA. Keeping fit and eating healthy isn't the only important aspect of his continued recovery. His wife, daughters and church helped, too.

"I had a reason to stick around. I was more than motivated to live," he said.

Studer is volunteering Saturday with his daughters, Vanessa, a junior at Monroe High School, and Alyssa, a junior at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

He hopes Cheese Days will attract people to stop by the donor drive and take the 5 minutes now that could save a life down the road.

"When it comes down to it, how many chances in your life do you have the opportunity to save someone's life?"