It’s not often you have the chance to possibly save a fellow student’s life.

And it could all start Wednesday at a bone marrow drive in DuSable Hall.

But more accurately, it started Feb. 19, when Kevin Ballantine, visiting junior undecided major, was diagnosed with leukemia. Without a bone marrow transplant, there is a 50 to 60 percent chance he will die in the next five years. With a transplant, his chances decrease dramatically.

Senior psychology major Autumn Rogers is organizing the drive. She decided to do so after her mom was diagnosed with leukemia and someone from the National Bone Marrow Program asked if she would be interested in hosting a drive at NIU.

“I said absolutely,” Rogers said. Her mom doesn’t need a transplant now, though she could at any time, but Kevin “needs it now,” she said.

Ballantine was back in his hometown of DeKalb less than two months when he found out he had leukemia. He attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, the last two years, but moved back home when he couldn’t decide on a major.

On Feb. 18 he realized something was wrong. The normally-healthy Ballantine had a stiff neck and swollen lymph nodes.

“I’d been having this pulsating in the back of my head,” he said. “It felt like my brain was bouncing on a cable every step I took.”

He went to the doctor later that day. He had some testing done, and before he even could make it home, the doctor phoned Ballantine’s mother, Diane DeMers, a two-time breast cancer survivor.

“I was shocked when they said he needed to go to the hospital immediately,” she said.

Ballantine spent the night in Kishwaukee Hospital. The next day he went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital, where he was officially diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. He would be there for 25 days.

The 20-year-old is naturally skinny, yet he lost some muscle mass after being in a hospital for so long. He wears a backwards Cornell Drumline cap atop his head, which used to be covered with long, curly hair but is now bald from chemotherapy. He has scars on his arms from all the IVs and shots he’s received the past few weeks.

“When you’re faced with death, you find out what really matters,” he said. “Being told that [you’re going to die] is one of those moments you’re never going to forget. The roller coaster of emotions: If I go now, what am I leaving behind? It really makes you reevaluate your life.”

Ballantine will find out if he has a donor match in the next few weeks. In the meantime, he’ll help out with Rogers’ drive, which he found out about after someone contacted his father D. Ballantine, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who in turn contacted DeMers.

“I’m just so glad that Autumn took it upon herself to do this,” DeMers said. “If Kevin doesn’t find a match in this first cut, maybe somebody on campus will be a match. It couldn’t have happened at a better time.”