By Jay Feinberg

In 1991, I was diagnosed with leukemia and told that my only hope of survival was a bone marrow transplant. Since I was unable to find a suitable donor in my family, an international unrelated donor search took place. Over the course of four long years, my family and friends mounted a campaign that tested 60,000 volunteers at hundreds of donor drives in the U.S. and abroad.

The drives identified matches for dozens of other patients, but none for me. In early 1995, my doctors told me that my disease had accelerated, and I would need a transplant with a mismatched donor. This was my only hope.

I prepared for my trip to Seattles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for my transplant. In the interim, a young student from Chicago asked if he could organize one last drive on my behalf at a small yeshiva in Milwaukee. He offered to raise the money himself, and his mom who was a phlebotomist would draw the blood. He recruited volunteers to help, and traveled to Milwaukee, where he registered 120 potential donors. At the very end of the drive, as the supplies were packed away, one of the volunteers offered to be tested. Her name was Becky. She was the very last person tested, and she turned out to be my miracle match!

As it turns out, Beckys whole family was tested for me several years earlier at a drive in Chicago. But since Becky was too young to donate, she waited in the car. The moral of this story is that there is always hope! We all have an opportunity to help repair the world and give back. What greater gift can one human being give to another than the gift of life?