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I asked one of our second year students, Gretchen Koplin, if she would be so kind and share a story with all of you—it is a story of synchronicity about thanks, giving and the harvesting of stem cells.

Best wishes for a special time of thanks for family, friends and the fellowship of our community.

David

Gretchen’s story:

A little over two years ago, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), and my recommended treatment regimen included a bone marrow/stem cell transplant.  I was lucky enough to have four viable donors, including two who were a 10 out of 10 match for me.  Going into the transplant process, the only thing that I knew about my donor was that he was a 42-year-old male who lived outside of the U.S.  Given that the cells must be infused into the recipient within 72 hours of being harvested from the donor, this meant that my transplant process needed to be a feat of coordination involving on-time international flights and a courier with my new cells in an Igloo cooler. (more…)