THE JOY OF DONATING BONE MARROW.

A small parcel arrived from America on Christmas Eve from a very special person.
Four years ago hubby donated his bone marrow to an unknown person who would otherwise have died without it.
He joined the register to donate bone marrow with Anthony Nolan many years ago when he saw an advertisement on tv to try and find a donor for Anthony Nolan himself. Our own son was, at that time, of a similar age to Anthony and it brings it home to you that you are lucky that your own children are healthy when you hear of such an appeal.
The routine of donating bone marrow was not difficult, a little like giving blood, only for a longer time, and he was looked after well. He had been on the register for many many years when he was called up to donate his bone marrow. You start to think "will I ever be a match for anyone" and then the call comes.
We did not have much idea to whom his bone marrow had gone, we had christmas cards and letters from the recipient, but all we knew was that they were a woman with a teenage son and a daughter in her early twenties. We had no idea which country they were from or what they looked like. Until about a year ago.
Two years after a donation, the recipient has the right to ask to contact their donor. You cannot have contact the other way around, it has to come from the recipient of the bone marrow, so when a letter arrived on the doorstep to say that the person whose life he saved wanted contact we had to make the decision as to whether or not to allow it to take place. After speaking to our children, and one another, we decided to allow contact and sent in the form of agreement.
One memorable day we received an email from Michelle in America, the lady whose life Graham had saved. She had been through a very bad time, she was so ill at one point that the family were gathered around her hospital bed to say goodbye. She was in a coma for a long time, and had to learn how to walk again. Without Grahams donation she told us, she would definately have died. Her husband would have been without his wife. Her children would have been without a mother. She told us how grateful she is to be alive, how wonderful it is to be able to say thankyou for the gift of life.
We are now friends on Facebook, we email each other and we have spoken on the phone. We hope to meet next year when they travel to visit friends in Ireland and we are hoping to go and meet Michelle and her husband. Without my husband Michelle would not be alive, and without my husband I would not be alive. You see I have also had cancer, Michelle had cancer of the blood, I had breast cancer. I had thrown away the letter to go for a routine mammogram but my husband, Graham, took the letter out of the bin and made me go and have that routine mammogram. I thought nothing was wrong, but I was wrong. It turned out I had breast cancer. If he had not rescued the letter, and made me attend the test, I may not be around to tell you this tale!
He says he donated his bone marrow to Michelle to "give something back" for my life being saved. He would have donated his bone marrow anyway, because that is the sort of person he is.
He is very proud to have saved a life, I am very proud of him. It is a wonderful thing to say you have saved the life of another person, a stranger whose paths otherwise would never have crossed your own. So if you can, save a life today. Join the bone marrow register. Thankyou.