A University of South Carolina Beaufort senior pitcher is sacrificing his baseball career in order to give a young boy a chance at survival.
Jason Boulais will donate bone marrow to a boy in France after testing confirmed he not was only a match, but he also was the boy’s best shot at getting a second chance. Boulais signed up with the Be the Match registry back in October, and was added to the database of potential donors after supplying a cheek swab.
Four months later when he was preparing for his final season with the Sandsharks, the pitcher received a call from the group, telling him he might be a match for someone. Donating his bone marrow means missing some, if not the remainder, of his senior season, but the decision was a no-brainer for Boulais.
“I was happy to be able to potentially help somebody out, save someone’s life,” Boulais said per USCBathletics.com. “It’s a blessing to have something I can be proud to do. I’m going to miss a few games because of it, but for someone to be able to potentially keep living is a lot more important.”
Boulais has had his teammates and coaches behind him throughout the entire process, as head coach Bryan Lewallyn said the pitcher has the team’s “full support.”
“I remember the day he told me,” Lewallyn said. “I was like, ‘If you need me to drive you somewhere, just tell me where. Absolutely. You do whatever it is you need to do and you’ll have our full support, 100 percent.’ A lot of times with younger guys, you don’t really think outside of yourself. When you’re 18, the world is only as big as your little bubble. The fact that he took it upon himself to volunteer and get tested is huge.”
Boulais will undergo surgery this month that will require marrow to be removed from his back and his pelvis. The recovery process typically is around 20 days, which makes Boulais hopeful he can return for the conference tournament. But Boulais is more than OK with how his baseball career will end if that doesn’t happen.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@CBSSportsMLB
