Soldier’s mission to save lives
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- In 2022 at Fort Bliss, Sgt. Christian Sutton launched a nationwide bone marrow registry campaign after losing his mother to cancer as a child — a mission aimed at saving lives through the U.S. Army.
Known on base as the “Bone Marrow Guy,” Sutton created Operation Ring the Bell, which has now registered more than 17,000 soldiers to the national bone marrow registry. Before his campaign, Army participation was minimal, and Fort Bliss hadn’t held a single drive in over a decade.
Sutton’s motivation stems from losing his mother to Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was just four years old. She needed a bone marrow transplant, but a matching donor was never found. Sutton believes that if a program like this had existed back then, her life may have been saved.
He realized the Army, with its young, healthy, and diverse population, was an untapped resource for bone marrow donors. Sutton began visiting battalions across Fort Bliss, handing out cheek swab kits and educating soldiers about the life-saving impact of registering.
At one point, Sutton collapsed from exhaustion during a registration event at William Beaumont Army Medical Center. When he woke up, he said the experience gave him clarity: the mission was bigger than himself, and it needed to last beyond him.
He developed a comprehensive plan to mainstream the operation, working directly with Fort Bliss leadership to ensure it could expand and sustain itself across the Army. That plan worked — the campaign has now spread to other installations including Fort Cavazos, Fort Carson, Fort Riley and Fort Campbell.
Sutton said he never imagined the campaign would grow this large. But now, he’s focused on making sure it doesn’t stop.
“If we can get this program established across the Army, it will double the amount of available bone marrow donors registered each year,” Sutton said. “The work I’m doing now will hopefully guarantee that most people don’t have the same fate and story that my mother did.”
The need is urgent: thousands of patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers rely on bone marrow transplants, but many never find a match. Sutton says joining the registry is simple — and could save someone’s life.
