A local, middle Tennessee resident shares his recent experience of becoming a bone marrow donor.

What made you decide to get involved with marrow donation/blood cancers?
After 9/11. Like most Americans I really wanted to do something different in life. I wanted to help others and make a difference. I knew I could not join the army so I went in search for another way. I had decided to donate a kidney but was talked out of it and realized that yeah, that was too drastic. While I was at the orientation for the kidney donation, the doc told me about bone marrow donations and I did some research on it.

I then went online and signed up. Over the next 10 years I got called about every 2 years with a possible match and gave lots of blood in the process. In April of this year they finally matched me and I did it.

What was the bone marrow process like?
When they called me with a possible match, I started to give a lot of blood and to do further test. Once they did a 100% match, it was exciting and I couldn't believe I had gotten matched. There were lots of doc visits and blood drawn. The operation was postponed due to the lady getting sick. It was supposed to take place in April but they wanted to try again in June so we set it for June 16th and just hoped the patient would be well enough.

The Bone Marrow program nurses were very nice and did lots of education with me and follow ups calls.

The operation itself took 3 hours. I was in TONS of pain that week and by week two was able to walk around but in pain. I was back to almost normal by 6 weeks. I still cannot run but I can do most anything else.

What have you learned from the process? Or in what ways has it inspired you?
I learned how simple it is to literally save a person life. It has inspired me like nothing else to do even more, which is why I am now working on the National Cancer Awareness Day Foundation that I created. I want to help all the cancer organizations to work together and create awareness. I also want to help the Bone Marrow program grow and create a national Bone Marrow drive day. I’m really motivated to help in any way I can. I would defiantly donate bone marrow again and again and again.

Do you have any information for people who would like to get involved in marrow donation?
YES they can go to www.marrow.org and sign up to be a donor. You don't even have to have surgery anymore. I can do it by giving blood.

More Information and Resources on Bone Marrow Donation:
For more information and resources on bone marrow donation, email help@bmtinfonet.org or visit www.bmtinfonet.org and www.lls.org, or contact the Tennessee Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Current advances in bone marrow donation offer non-surgical, more pain-free procedures for donors. Learn about facts and myths from the National Marrow Donor Program.