Firefighter Dustin Luebke puts his life on the line everyday protecting and serving the community. Never did he think his life would be threatened in a different way.

So now in 2017, Im going through it for the third time. So now its again recurring Hodgkins, said Luebke.

It all started in March of 2014. After 12 rounds of chemotherapy and six months in remission, it came back. He needed a stem cell transplant and was able to use his own stem cells.

Shortly after completing a year of chemotherapy after the transplant, it came back for the third time.

Its tough to swallow the first time and the second time. And then with the third time, its frustrating, said Luebke.

This father to three little girls will eventually need a bone marrow transplant.

But with this time, right now Im just doing an immunotherapy and were hoping that brings it back down to a cellular level and I can be on that for as long as until it stops working. So then it would require a stem cell transplant with a donor this time, said Luebke.

Thats where you and I can do our part and become part of the bone marrow registry and potentially be the match and save a life like Luebke's.

You fill out a short questionnaire. It talks about your health history and some personal questions, like how willing would you be to become a donor and then the swabbing process is really simple. We just swab each of your cheeks for a couple of minutes and then youre done, said Jalisa Spittler, transplant coordinator.

Spittler says 70% of patients who need a donor dont have a match in their family making the bone marrow registry their only hope.

We do have a lot of patients here that are waiting for matches that we just cant find for them. So its really helpful if we can create a diverse list with tons of people from here in South Dakota, said Spittler.

I got three little girls to raise and beautiful wife at home so I gotta stick around for a few more years, said Luebke.

Its pretty tough to realize that now youre relying on someone else where before it was all the medicine and just chemotherapy and now youre relying on somebody else with healthy stem cells to keep you going, said Luebke.

Sometimes it takes months to find a match.

Its taxing on them because they have to take more chemotherapy the longer it takes us to find a match for them. And the more chemotherapy they take, the harder it is on their body to get through the transplant. So its really important that we have a huge number of people to look at first, said Spittler.

Theres many ways that you can help out with people lives. And whether its in a fire, on a medical call and even helping somebody with life itself and furthering their life and making it better so they dont have to do chemotherapy anymore, said Luebke.

Luebke is a hero to this family and the community.

The first step to being someones cure is to join Be the Match Registry.

This Tuesday at the Oyate Community Center in Sioux Falls, there will be a bone marrow registry drive from noon to 7PM. It is put on by Avera, the city of Sioux Falls, and Be the Match. Registering takes less than 15 minutes.

For more information, just call 877-AT-AVERA.

See the article here:
Avera Medical Minute AMcK: Firefighter with recurrent Hodgkin Lymphoma will need bone marrow transplant in future ... - KSFY

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