HAYS COUNTY, Texas -- A student from Lehman High School is fighting cancer and needs your help.

Senior Nina Matts is undergoing treatment at Dell Children’s in Austin for acute myeloid leukemia. After being diagnosed on November 9, her family recently learned her brother isn’t a match for a bone marrow transplant, which leaves Nina in desperate need of finding a donor.

Her yearbook class organized a “Be The Match” event at Lehman High School to help find a match.

The event drew around 300 students, teachers, and community members of Kyle, eager to help Nina. Each person used a simple cheek swab that will be tested— it’s the first step in seeing if anyone could possibly be a match for Nina.

In addition to the nearly 300 at the event on Friday, 23 others were swabbed on Saturday, and around 150 people who couldn’t make it in person have requested a swab kit be mailed home. Anyone looking to do the same can text the name “Nina” to 61474.

“We miss her. She's the mom of my class, she keeps me on track. This yearbook class I have with Nina in it, it's handpicked. The students, I've had for multiple years. It's a special class. It's a special relationship,” said teacher Stacy Martinez. "This yearbook class that's hosting the GoFundMe page and hosting the Be The Match, this was their idea. This was my class's idea. They wanted to be a part of Nina's journey and they wanted to be able to tell Nina's journey and make sure that she's getting all the help that she needs."

Lehman High School student passing a cheek swab to a volunteer. (Stacy Rickard/Spectrum News)

Lehman High School teacher Stacy Martinez said she’s had the pleasure of having Nina in class for two years now.

"She's just a part of our family and our staff that I hold so close," Martinez said.

Nina contacted Martinez back on November 9 to tell her the grim news.

“She knew I was going to go into mama bear mode. So the first message was, 'Don't freak out. I don't need anything. I'm just letting you know what's going on.’ And that's when she told me that she got diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and she was going to Dell Children's Hospital," Martinez said.

Nina has now started her second round of chemotherapy.

“Her first round of chemo didn't go as well as it should have. She got an infection and she got pneumonia,” Martinez said. "All my information is coming from her mom. Her mom and I text daily checking on her. She keeps me updated. I also volunteered to be Nina's homebound teacher. So I will be going to Dell Children's Hospital once a week to see her."

Nina is in the top two percent of her class and is set to attend the University of North Texas in the fall. 

"She herself is a go-getter. And so she has in mind what she still needs to get done. And leukemia is not a part of that," Martinez said. "She's more worried about tests that are coming up in May and making sure that all of her schoolwork is kept up with. This girl has plans and she just needs our help."

Martinez's students were trained by Be The Match community representative Brenda Garza about what it takes to donate.

Brenda Garza showing a power point to students in the class. (Stacy Rickard/Spectrum News)

“Once we find the right donor, we just ask them to donate some of their blood, we collect the stem cells and we give it to the cancer patient. By that donation, cancer patients like Nina— they're going to have a chance of surviving, like a second opportunity to live,” Garza said.

According to Garza, about one in 430 members of the registry will go on to donate bone marrow or stem cells. And cells from younger donors lead to more successful transplants.

“So we have close to 30 million people on the registry. Someone like Nina who is Caucasian or white, she has higher chances of finding the match up to 77 percent, but still it’s not 100 percent. So we're going to search within 30 million people and see who's going to be the match,” Garza said.

The students ran the bone marrow drive at Lehman, helping potential donors sign up, and packaging the cheek swabs to be mailed out.

One of the swabs used at the Lehman drive. (Stacy Rickard/Spectrum News)

“They're all just very excited and very willing to help us and help Nina,” said Nina’s classmate Emory Saucedo. “She's a very feisty one, she is gonna fight to the end, I know that for sure. So if anyone can handle it, I know it's her.”

Martinez echoed Saucedo, saying Nina is a fighter and determined.

“Chemo, radiation and bone marrow - I mean, if anybody's gonna handle it, it is Nina. The bone marrow drive was going to be the last resort. But unfortunately, now it's the main thing that needs to be done,” Martinez said.

The class is trying to keep a positive attitude, but Martinez said it's taking an emotional toll on everyone.

“The toll this is taking on me is that I feel like I'm doing everything on my end that I can do and I feel like it's still not enough. I'm not giving up. And it's frustrating because we can't see her. The class wants to see her— her friends want to see her. And we just want her to be better and so we're doing everything that we can in our power to help her get better.”

If you weren’t able to get to the school the day of the event, text the name “Nina” to 61474 to join the “Be The Match” registry and get a cheek swab kit mailed to you.