By Alison Sullivan, The Gazette

NORTH LIBERTY What would you say to the person who saved your life? For Angela Kearns it was a tearful thank you.

Kearns, of Marion, received a bone marrow transplant two years ago and on Saturday she and her bone marrow donor, Matthew Sabongi, met for the first time at the Colony Pumpkin Patch in North Liberty.

Kearns, 42, and Sabongi, 26, met in an emotional embrace surrounded by friends, family and other bone marrow donors and recipients. The two were connected by the Be the Match National Bone Marrow Donor Program, which Sabongi joined in 2011 as a medical student.

Kearns was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2009 and again in 2012. Although none of her family members were bone marrow matches, she was optimistic there would be a match somewhere.

I thought theyd find a donor, I just thought God would work it out, said Kearns, a mother of two.

Her situation isnt abnormal, according to Be the Match. Seventy percent of bone marrow recipients find matches in unrelated donors. Whether someone is a match is determined by their human leukocyte antigen, a protein found in most cells in the body.

Sabongi, of Minneapolis, said three months after he registered he got a call that he could be a possible match. After he was a confirmed match, he immediately agreed to donate.

Young donors ages 18 to 44 can make the biggest impact, said Julee Darner, donor services coordinator at the University of Iowa Marrow Donor Program. She said tudies show recipients tend to fare better in the long term with bone marrow donated from people in that age group.

The registry keeps donors and recipients anonymous until a year later, when both parties can choose whether they want to find out the others identity. So when Sabongi received a thank-you letter from Kearns a few months later, it was anonymous.

Read the original:
Marion woman meets her life saver

Comments are closed.