Greta Diers began spreading awareness about becoming a donor after she learned her mother would need a bone-marrow transplant to survive, the Star Tribune reported. 

As the leader of the University's Be the Match chapter, Diers plans events centered on raising bone-marrow donation awareness, recruiting donors and dispelling misconceptions, Minnesota Public Radio reported. Be the Match is a Minneapolis nonprofit that keeps a list of potential bone-marrow donors.

One misunderstanding Diers often deals with is that donating bone marrow is very painful, the Star Tribune said.

"People who have donated … tell me it feels like falling on the ice," Diers told the Tribune. "We're in Minnesota. We all do that at least once a year anyway."

Be the Match held a Minneapolis convention in July where college students from across the country learned to recruit donors their age, MPR said.

Only about half of the 12,000 patients waiting for a bone-marrow donor last year received one, MPR reported.