DONOR & HERO: Rashaan DeShay

I remember the day I found out I was a match.  I had just gotten out of class, and was headed to my car when the doctor’s office called.  They told me I was a match, and wanted to be sure I was willing to be the donor before they told my brother and sister-in-law.  Of course I would be a donor! It’s not like it’s something I had to think about.  I was a match! That’s all I needed to know.  I was so excited! As soon as I hung up with the doctor’s office, I called my sister-in-law to give her the good news.  From that point on, tests were done and the preparations were made for the actual transplant.   Read more about her donor experience...
DONOR & HERO: Adam McFadden

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I'm so happy. Every time I think about it, I'm almost in tears." This was a day before meeting an 18-year-old named Lamar Adams. McFadden saved Adams' life, or as McFadden says, extended it, by donating his blood stem cells.

McFadden signed up five years ago at a recruitment drive at James Madison High School of Excellence. A friend's son had leukemia, but McFadden wasn't a match. Then, in late fall 2003 and more than 300 miles away in the Bronx, Adams went for a physical so he could play high school basketball and was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Under program rules, donor and recipient must remain anonymous for at least a year. McFadden said he thought about it every day, then started making inquiries when the year was up. Story...
Another Hero: Tierra McClendon

Fort Valley State University sophomore Tierra McClendon, signed up to be a donor during a campus bone marrow drive held in honor of a Warner Robins student who passed away. On Thursday, July 23, 2009 McClendon received a surprise call. Her bone marrow matches that of a 20-year-old leukemia patient. In August 2009, McClendon will travel to Atlanta to give the gift of life to a patient she doesn’t know.

“Making this donation is small thing for me to do,” said McClendon, “But it will be a big thing for that patient. For African-Americans, the list is very small, not a lot of people are willing to donate their bone marrow, so a lot of patients die.”

Read her story in the FVSU paper
Read her story in the Gary, Indiana paper 
DONOR & HERO: Nechelle Ervin

Nechelle Ervin's selfless act of joining the registry saved the life of a 15-year-old boy. "I learned that there was a pressing need for more minorities in the registry and that I could possibly help save a life" She is now a Baylor HealthCare System recruiter/coordinator for the National Marrow Donor Program.

Ervin received the call on her birthday in June 2005. A teenager diagnosed with leukemia was on his third round of chemotherapy and in desperate need of a marrow transplant. She was a perfect match. "It weighed on my heart that this was something I must do. I have two children of my own and my son was almost the same age as this child at the time. All I could think about were my kids and how I would want someone to help my child," she says. With her sacrifice, a young boy could experience life. "It was a little bit of me that I gave," she says. "I feel like he's my own child. He has my immune system, my allergies and my blood type." .
DONOR & HERO: Tim Crawford

‘He saved me:’ Illinois woman shows her appreciation to Adairsville donor
by Margaret Ramirez, Chicago Tribune

Ever since she received a bone marrow transplant two years ago, Rosalind Beard wanted to meet the man who donated his stem cells to save her life. In an emotional meeting Sunday at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., Beard was introduced to Georgia resident Tim Crawford, and both wept as if they had known each other for ages.

“He saved me,” said Beard, 37, a Melrose Park mother of four children. “I had been wanting to meet him for the longest time and thank him in person. We have the same stem cells, so I feel like I knew him already.” Crawford, 40, of Adairsville, learned about the crucial need for African-American bone marrow donors at a church health event in early 2007. He was so moved that he registered on the spot as a potential donor. Full Story....
DONOR & HERO: John C. Frierson

John C. Frierson of Detroit registered at a drive hosted at his church for a local fire fighter in October 2002.  Six months later he was chosen to save the life of a two-year old boy.

The bone marrow transplant was successfully completed in June 2003.  The process was so non-evasive that John was inspired to share the critical need for minorities (especially African Americans) to join the National Marrow Donor Program - NMDP (Be the Match) registry using an innovative outreach approach that meets the target group in convenient places they frequent most! He started an organization and has since recruited more than 1000 potential donors and educated more than 3000 minorities about the need to join the registry. More...
Marrow Heroes
Nechelle recently met Ghadmel who she donated her marrow  to in 2005.
How Being Black Can Save A Life
African American Marrow Connection
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DONOR & HERO: Bobbie J Smith (from a letter she wrote to to her recipient)

In August 2001, I was attending a Women's Visions Expo in Dallas with my daughter. We go every year. l was at the Baylor Health Station where they check your blood pressure, do a minor stress tests, and give handouts regarding women‘s health issues. The very last station was where they asked me did I want to give a blood sample for the Bone Marrow Bank because it may help someone in the future. I said "ok" can't hurt anything, was just a finger prick, But in Sept 2007 when I got the call from Baylor saying I may be a possible match for someone, I told them Sure I’ll go thru with the testing. The reason I did was because if me or my family was in need, I would want someone to do the same for us. I also am a believer in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I did not think He would let something happen to me since I was trying to help someone else.

I was 55 years old at the time of the surgery and I never had a pain whatsoever, I wanted to go back to work the very next day but my family made me stay home for 2 days, then I went back to work. I am so happy that all is well with you, praise God for that! Being 1 in 5 Million lets me know that it was in Gods divine plan for my life to be there for you. I actually looked forward to the operation because it meant l could get some rest while in the hospital, imagine that! You actually were my Godsend because my pastor always says we need to try to do something for someone else who cannot return the favor. That is the true meaning of being a blessing to someone else.
Bobbie now volunteers for Be The Match