A SPARK of New Life

Imagine walking across campus and hearing someone yell, “Hey, want to sign up to donate your bone marrow?” It was a volunteer at a DKMS registration drive in the Memorial Student Center. Would you stop to ask, “How?” Last year, Marshall sophomore Brennan Amaral did. And after learning about the program, he said yes.

DKMS (German for “Deutsche Knochen Mark Spenderdatei” or “German Bone Marrow Donor File”) is a nonprofit organization founded in Germany by a doctor who had lost his wife to leukemia, one of several blood cancers. It now has donors all over the globe, including over 1 million in the United States. Adam Guthrie, who had become a student ambassador for DKMS after a bone marrow drive at his high school for a female friend, is the Marshall chapter’s organizer. He brought the program to Marshall when he enrolled in 2016. His friend came to Marshall as well, and the first drive Adam organized was specifically for her. Meanwhile, Brennan had heard of her plight; so when the volunteer called out to him, he decided to help. Thus began an improbable journey for the Martinsburg, West Virginia, native.

Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer, which includes lymphoma and myeloma, as well as leukemia. But, since only 1 percent of those who register ever match a recipient, he knew signing up was a long shot. He submitted three swabs of his saliva, which Adam sent off for testing, and waited.

When Brennan’s donor card arrived at his home address, his mother was incredulous. She asked why he would do such a thing. Brennan told her he put himself in the shoes of a person who was that sick, hoping someone would do that for him. He said, “If I can help, I can deal with the little bit of pain associated with the procedure.”

In reality, he didn’t think he would match at all. But he actually matched two people. Because there isn’t a center in Huntington for bone marrow transplants, Brennan and his mother, who had quickly come on board with the idea, traveled to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and its Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center near Washington, D.C., in June 2018 for extensive blood tests. DKMS paid all their expenses. They returned in July when Brennan was tested once again prior to the actual procedure. Before each round of testing, Brennan was asked if he was still sure he wanted to donate. Each time, he said yes.

For the two-hour procedure, he was anesthetized and resting facedown while bone marrow was drawn from his spine. Afterward, he admitted, he was tired and sore. But he said he was humbled by the experience as well. It took several weeks for him to regain his strength because he had donated the maximum amount of bone marrow allowed. Nevertheless, he said, “it was worth it.”

Just about the time he fully recovered, he got another call from DKMS asking if he would do it again. The person to whom he had donated the bone marrow, a 53-year-old woman, needed a blood/stem cell booster. The call came on Thursday and she needed his stem cells on Monday.

On Sept. 9, 2018, DKMS flew Brennan and his mother to Georgetown for a second outpatient procedure. He was hooked to an apheresis machine that filtered his blood to extract his stem cells. For five to eight hours he didn’t move while the machine removed blood from his right arm, filtered it and periodically returned it through a needle in his left arm. Although that’s a long time, Brennan said it wasn’t bad.

“My mom was there with me the whole time. We watched movies; we talked; and they had the television on for us.”

After about a week and a half he was back at Marshall. During that time, he couldn’t lift things or do strenuous activity.

Right now, Brennan knows little about the person to whom he donated, but that may change this year. DKMS allows donor and recipient to meet, if they both want to, after a year. Brennan hopes to meet his genetic twin as soon as he is able.

Adam has witnessed such a reunion of donor and recipient and described it “super emotional.” He said he feels good knowing he is helping to facilitate these matches. Among the 1,200 people who have registered at Marshall’s drives in the past two and a half years, there have been six matches, a remarkable average. Adam only knows this because donors have told him. It’s against DKMS policy for organizers or volunteers to know about matches unless the donor makes contact.

“I like to tell people, ‘If you match, reach out to me.’ Knowing that people have matched is cool. When you register 500 people, that’s a lot of potential lives saved,” Adam said.

He is planning another registration push, which he calls “swab drives,” in the spring. The group has a Facebook page, DKMS Marshall University, which features information about the program and upcoming drives. Usually, a drive is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You also can register online at www.dkms.org/en. And of course, Adam is always looking for volunteers to help with the drives both on and off campus.

“I’ve given presentations at different schools and local organizations to try and get people interested,” he said.

That’s what drew him to become the only student ambassador in the state, a situation he hopes to change. He’d like to see others do the same, he said.

As for Brennan, he’s thrilled that his participation not only saved a life, but also has had a positive ripple effect. A few of his friends who were going to take their names off the registry have changed their minds, and people who work with his mother have now registered because she shared Brennan’s story on Facebook. “I definitely would do it again,” he said. “One hundred percent.” 

Carter Taylor Seaton is a freelance writer living in Huntington.