In the News
November 2019: Perfect match: How Birthright alumni saved the lives of 100s of strangers
by Ilanit Chernick
In August 2013, Jeffrey Altadonna, who was on a Birthright trip, was tested at a swab drive to recruit new registry members to become potential bone marrow or stem cell transplant matches at the Jerusalem Gate Hotel. Nearly five years to the day since he was tested, he was matched to a perfect stranger who needed his life-saving blood stem cells. Read the article.
November 2019: Mount Union football player donates stem cells in effort to save life
by Tim Rogers
November 2019: Gift of Life Honors McKesson as Corporate Partner
by Will Maddox
McKesson Corp. was presented with the Corporate Partner Award from the Gift of Life Marrow Registry for its work facilitating bone marrow and stem cell transplants for leukemia and other blood cancer patients. Read the article.
November 2019: Seth Akins active again after transplant
by Briana Pastorino
After an eight month battle with a rare blood disease, Seth Akins got the miracle he and his family had been praying for — a lifesaving bone marrow transplant at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. At 10 years old, Akins was diagnosed in January 2017 with aplastic anemia — a rare condition in which the bone marrow does not produce enough new blood cells as a result of bone marrow damage.
November 2019: Mount Union lineman Adam Pastor tackles lifesaving donation
by Tim Rogers
In the end, after a scant few moments of thought, Adam Pastor made up his mind. Quite simply, he figured, it was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do. There was no weighing of consequences, no fear of commitment and no question in his mind. He was only answering God’s call. He was going to be a stem cell donor. Read the article.
November 2019: West Rogers Park woman meets baby whose life she saved through stem cell donation
by Hosea Sanders
November 2019: A Simple Swab: Dance Team hold stem cell drive to help cure blood cancer
by Emma Frank and Haley Thornberry
Certain forms of blood cancer can only be cured through stem cell and bone marrow transplants. The varsity dance team teamed up with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry to get more peope involved by holding a stem cell drive. If anyone who participated in the drive is a match, they will be asked to donate. Read the article.
October 2019: Mesa dad of 6 meets bone marrow donor
A Mesa father of six who was battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia met and learned the identity of his life-saving bone marrow donor for the first time in Connecticut. Mark Roser, 33, a sales supervisor for GoDaddy, was introduced to Jennie Bunce, 25, a personal trainer and physical therapy student, in an emotional encounter at a Gift of Life Marrow Registry event. Read the article.
October 2019: Gift of Life Marrow Registry launching major campaign to recruit egamers and save lives
Gift of Life Marrow Registry is debuting a major digital campaign to recruit video gamers and enthusiasts as life-saving heroes. Gift of Life will introduce the initiative this week at Esports BAR Miami — one of the world’s premier events for business leaders, players and fans in the booming global esports industry. Read the article.
October 2019: Gift of Life Marrow Registry launching major campaign to recruit egamers and save lives
Gift of Life Marrow Registry is debuting a major digital campaign to recruit video gamers and enthusiasts as life-saving heroes. Gift of Life will introduce the initiative this week at Esports BAR Miami -- one of the world’s premier events for business leaders, players and fans in the booming global esports industry. Gift of Life will be participating for the first time in Esports BAR Miami. Read the article.
September 2019: Gift the Gift of Life
Leukemia and other blood cancers affect over 300,000 people in the United States alone. Individuals affected by these diseases only have a 1 in 4 chance of finding a match within their family. If they cannot find a match there, they must look to the International Donor Registry which is their last hope at finding a cure. Unfortunately, the registry does not provide the same chances at finding a match for every person. Read the article.
September 2019: 10-year-old with cancer sparks bone marrow recruitment drives in Great Neck
by Robert Pelaez
Last weekend several temples and Jewish centers in Great Neck took part in helping Elan Shademan, a 10-year-old boy battling to avoid leukemia, by hosting bone marrow and stem cell donor recruitment drives. The donor drives were held on Saturday and Sunday at Temple Israel, Beth Hadassah Synagogue, the Mashadi Jewish Center and the Babylonian Jewish Center. The drives were on behalf of the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, working with community partners and Legislator Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck). Read the article.
September 2019: Baltimore man meets 9-year-old whose life he saved with stem cell donation
For the first time ever, a Baltimore man got a chance to meet the 9-year-old Philadelphia boy who's life he saved by donating stem cells. The emotional get together happened on September 17 during a ceremony at Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s One Huge Night Gala in New York City. Gregory Mitchell, 30, a financial adviser, donated stem cells last year to Marcus Haggins, who until receiving a transplant, was battling Severe Aplastic Anemia. Read the article and watch the video.
September 2019: Local woman meets lifesaving donor from NYC
by Justine Waldman
A San Rafael resident has met her life-saving donor after battling adult acute myeloid leukemia. View the video.
September 2019: Life-saving Baltimore stem cell donor meets 9-year old recipient
by Sam Miller
A life-saving Baltimore, Md., blood stem cell donor met his transplant recipient, a Philadelphia, Pa., boy, for the very first time in an emotional ceremony at Gift of Life Marrow Registry's One Huge Night Gala in New York City on September 17. Gregory Mitchell, 30, a financial advisor, donated stem cells last year to Marcus Haggins, 9, who was battling Severe Aplastic Anemia, until receiving his transplant. Mitchell joined Gift of Life's registry during a 2012 donor recruitment drive at an Atlantic City, N.J. cultural festival. Read the article.
September 2019: San Rafael Leukemia survivor meets life-saving stem cell donor
by Erica Gibbs
Alison Roberts, 69, of San Rafael, Calif., met her life-saving stem cell donor for the very first time in an emotional ceremony at Gift of Life Marrow Registry's "One Huge Night" gala in New York City on September 17. The Marin grandmother, 69, was battling adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) until receiving her transplant last year in San Francisco. Her donor, Lauren Gaines, 28, a New York event planner, joined Gift of Life's registry in 2011 while attending Tulane University. Read the article.
September 2019: Gift of Life and Misfits Esports to run first virtual ‘Swab-a-Thon’ on Twitch Channel
Gift of Life Marrow Registry and Misfits Gaming esports are teaming up to thank donors and expand the marrow registry in celebration of World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) on Sept. 21-22, by hosting the first-of-its-kind “Swab-a-Thon” on the streaming website Twitch. More than 20 players from Misfits Gaming and its Overwatch team, the Florida Mayhem, will promote WMDD and Gift of Life’s mission to esports audiences around the world. Read the article.
September 2019: San Rafael cancer survivor meets life-saving donor
by Adrian Rodriguez
For about 15 years, San Rafael resident Alison Roberts had been living with polycythemia vera, or PV, a rare form of blood cancer, when suddenly she experienced complications with her medication. “It was two years ago that I found out I also had acute myeloid leukemia,” said Roberts, 69, referring to another aggressive blood cancer. “Each cancer, you can manage with treatment, but having them both created an impossible juggling act.” Thanks to the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, and a stem cell donor from New York, Roberts’ days of juggling are behind her. Read the article.
September 2019: LionTree CEO and KindredCast host Aryeh Bourkoff honored by Gift of Life
by Chris Peterson
Last night, LionTree founder and CEO and KindredCast host Aryeh Bourkoff was presented with the Partners for Life award by Gift of Life Marrow Registry at their annual gala in New York. “The beautiful thing about giving is not only the decisive difference it makes,” Aryeh said in a speech at the gala. “By connecting people who would otherwise never meet in the most intimate and powerful way, Gift of Life does something else of vital importance; it overcomes loneliness. A gift is a relationship, and it opens new horizons where we see farther and more clearly.” Read the article.
September 2019: Charity pickleball tourney in Kingston raises funds for Gift of Life Marrow Registry
A group of volunteers hosted the Hudson Valley Round Robin Charity Pickleball Tournament to benefit the Gift of Life Marrow Registry on Sept. 7 at Loughran Park in Kingston. Seventy-two pickleball players, along with dozens of spectators and volunteers, came to support this cause. The event was chaired by area residents Gail Oliver and Jayne McLaughlin, the local ambassador of the USA Pickleball Association. Read the article.
September 2019: Gift of Life Marrow Registry receives Florida Blue Foundation Grant for first-of-its-kind stem cell collection center
Gift of Life Marrow Registry announced today it has received a $250,000 grant from the Florida Blue Foundation to support the registry’s newly-opened, groundbreaking stem cell collection center in Boca Raton, Fla. This gift is based on the passion Gift of Life and Florida Blue share: to save lives and positively impact communities. Read the article.
September 2019: MLS helping to Kick Childhood Cancer with league-wide campaign
The sixth edition of Kick Childhood Cancer, an MLS WORKS initiative, will begin Aug. 31 as part of childhood cancer awareness month ... The LA Galaxy will recognize community partner Gift of Life [Marrow Registry] by welcoming bone marrow recipients and donors to the game for an on-field presentation in honor of World Marrow Donor Day on Sept. 21. The LA Galaxy Foundation will also invite pediatric cancer patients and their families to attend training sessions during the month of September. Read the article.
September 2019: Nursing student's bone marrow donation could save leukemia patient
When Haley Ludviksen helped her student organization bring a bone marrow donor drive to Saginaw Valley State University six years ago, the nursing major never expected she might be the one to give a potentially lifesaving gift to a person in need. The unexpected happened this summer. Read the article.
August 2019: Stem Cell Donations Can Save Lives
by Jamie Parfitt
Gift of Life Marrow Registry say the more people that are registered to donate, the more lives can b e saved. One Ashland man's life was saved thanks to a stem cell transplant. Watch the video.
August 2019: Ashland Cancer Survivor Meets Stem Cell Donor for the First Time
by Andryanna Sheppard
Richard Pepper was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia or A-M-L. it's an aggressive form of blood cancer. "I said if it's my time to go, it's my time to go, but i prayed that I'd be around because I think I still have some good to do on this earth, so i wanted to be here a little longer." Richard said, "I could either get the treatments or die in six weeks and it was a no brainer." Watch the first video. Watch the second video.
August 2019: 2 Farmington men get to know recipients of bone marrow donations
by Karen Dandurant
One of the most selfless acts a person can do is to donate life, through blood, organs, or bone marrow, whether that donation goes to a beloved family member, or in the case of the following two stories, to a total stranger. Two New Hampshire men, both employees of Atlantic Broadband, not only donated to a stranger, but each got a chance to meet their “person” and see the impact of their donation. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits Gaming Announces Partnership with Gift of Life
Esports organisation Misfits Gaming has announced a partnership with nonprofit organisation Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Misfits Gaming and their Overwatch team Florida Mayhem will work with Gift of Life to educate the public and recruit new marrow and stem cell donors at tournaments and gaming events. The partnership will kick off with Florida Mayhem at the Blizzard Arena on August 8. Players, coaches and fans will be able to learn more about Gift of Life and show their support by signing up to join the marrow registry. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits Gaming Teams Up with Gift of Life Marrow Registry
by Erica Gibbs
Misfits Gaming, a global organization that owns esports teams in North America and Europe, has formed a partnership with Gift of Life Marrow Registry to fight blood cancer, the two announced today. Gift of Life registers volunteer bone marrow and stem cell donors to help cure leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell, and nearly 100 other diseases through transplantation. Read the article.
August 2019: Treynor mother of three meets Florida man who saved her life
by Courtney Upah
A mother of three from Treynor went to Florida last week and met the man who saved her life. Lisa Dunbar, 50, battled lymphoma and needed blood stem cells to live. The donation came from Sean Conklin, 27, from Delray Beach, Florida in 2014. The encounter was a surprise arranged by Gift of Life Marrow Registry for the annual Campus Ambassador Symposium in Boca Raton, Florida. “It turned out that Lisa’s donor started working at Gift of Life ... we thought it would be a nice surprise to facilitate the meeting of the two of them,” said Marti Freund, director of community engagement for Gift of Life. Read the story.
August 2019: Podcast – Misfits Gaming partners with Gift of Life
Click here to visit the UEG Esports News website and listen to the podcast.
August 2019: Florida Mayhem, Misfits partner with Gift of Life
by Sam Bishop
Misfits Gaming and Florida Mayhem have revealed a partnership with Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a company that registers volunteer bone marrow and stem cell donors, helping the fight against diseases like leukemia. Both Misfits and Mayhem will help recruit donors via tournaments and gaming events, and a Florida Mayhem Team Day was held at the Blizzard Arena yesterday, with players and coaches showing support for Gift of Life. Streams will help encourage people to check out Gift of Life as well, and the esports crew will assist with swab drives that Campus Ambassadors lead at colleges and universities in Florida as well. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits Gaming and Florida Mayhem Team Up With Gift of Life Marrow Registry to Save Lives
Misfits Gaming and the Florida Mayhem have announced their partnership with Gift of Life Marrow Registry to fight blood cancer. Gift of Life is an organization that facilitates transplants for children and adults suffering from life-threatening illnesses, including leukemia, lymphoma, other cancers and genetic diseases. Misfits Gaming, the parent organization of the Overwatch League team the Florida Mayhem, will work with Gift of Life to educate the public and recruit new marrow and stem cell donors at tournaments and gaming events. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits Gaming and Florida Mayhem partner with Gift of Life
Misfits Gaming, which owns Miami-based Overwatch League team the Florida Mayhem, will work with Gift of Life to educate the public and recruit new marrow and stem cell donors at tournaments and gaming events. Gift of Life registers volunteer bone marrow and stem cell donors to help cure leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell, and nearly 100 other diseases through transplantation. The partnership will kick off with a first-of-its-kind appearance at the Florida Mayhem Team Day, held at the Blizzard Arena on August 8. Players, coaches and fans will show their support for Gift of Life by learning more about the mission to save lives and joining the marrow registry. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits and Florida Mayhem partner with Gift of Life
North American organisation Misfits Gaming and its Overwatch League franchise Florida Mayhem have partnered with cancer charity Gift of Life. The partnership will see both Misfits and Florida Mayhem work with the charity to educate their fans, through social media and at live events, in an effort to recruit new marrow and stem cell donors at tournaments. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits and Mayhem Team Up with Gift of Life
Misfits Gaming are excited to announce our partnership with Gift of Life Marrow Registry to fight blood cancer. Gift of Life registers volunteer bone marrow and stem cell donors to help cure leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell, and nearly 100 other diseases through transplantation. Misfits Gaming and the Florida Mayhem, will work with Gift of Life to educate the public and recruit new marrow and stem cell donors at tournaments and gaming events. Read the article.
August 2019: Misfits and Florida Mayhem partner with Gift of Life
by Adam Fitch
North American organisation Misfits Gaming and its Overwatch League franchise Florida Mayhem have partnered with cancer charity Gift of Life. The partnership will see both Misfits and Florida Mayhem work with the charity to educate their fans, through social media and at live events, in an effort to recruit new marrow and stem cell donors at tournaments. Read the article.
August 2019: Florida Mayhem announce Gift of Life Marrow Registry Partnership
by Olivia R.
The Florida Mayhem, through parent company Misfits Gaming, has announced a partnership with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. To help fight blood cancer, Gift of Life registers volunteer bone marrow and stem cell donors. These donations can help cure leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell, and 100 other diseases through transplantation, according to a press release. Read the article.
August 2019: Florida Atlantic University Student Named Gift Of Life Marrow Registry ‘Most Valuable Campus Ambassador’
Florida Atlantic University junior Jackson Hillman was named “Most Valuable Campus Ambassador (MVC)” by Gift of Life Marrow Registry last night for his outstanding efforts in the community and at FAU recruiting hundreds of potentially life-saving blood stem cell and bone marrow donors to the registry. Read the article.
July 2019: Philathropy is a personal matter for Delray Beach native Jennifer Magi
by April W. Klimley
Jennifer Magi, a Florida State University engineering student, is a case in point. Practical, down-to-earth and focused, the 21-year-old was named FSU’s 2019 Undergraduate Humanitarian of the Year in April thanks in large part to her work with the Gift of Life (GOL) Marrow Registry, based in Boca Raton. The award was presented by John Thrasher, FSU president. Magi, a Delray Beach native, started working with the national nonprofit in 2018 – just after her father, Michael, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive form of blood cancer. Read the article.
July 2019: Chevrolet Charity Challenge Update: Diego Polenta and Gift of Life Marrow Registry
This weekend, Diego Polenta kicked off the Chevy Charity Challenge with the series' first competition. For every clearance Polenta made in the match, the LA Galaxy Foundation donated $200 to Gift of Life. With four clearances in Saturday's match, the LA Galaxy Foundation donated $800 to Gift of Life! In addition, fan donations in the week leading up amounted to $100! Visit Diego's page for current updates.
July 2019: Lymphoma Survivor Meets Man Who Saved Her Life
by Erica Gibbs
An Iowa mother of three who battled lymphoma met her life-saving blood stem cell donor during Gift of Life Marrow Registry's Campus Ambassador Symposium this past week at the Boca Raton Marriott at Boca Center. In a surprise encounter arranged by Gift of Life Marrow Registry, Lisa Dunbar, 50, of Treynor, Iowa, met Sean Conklin, 27, of Delray Beach, Fla. on Sunday night during the Gift of Life event. Read the article.
July 2019: Don Chris serves as host of Gift of Life Campus Ambassador Dinner
by Don Chris
I had the honor to host the Gift Of Life Campus Ambassador Dinner on Tuesday evening. The Campus Ambassador Program is a 2-day seminar located right here in Boca Raton. Hundreds of students from across the United States come here to learn how to organize and promote Gift of Life Marrow Registry. After the 2-day seminar, the ambassadors will take their knowledge and organize swab drives back at their college campuses. Every time a match is found or a transplant is completed, Gift of Life notifies the Campus Ambassador that conducted that swab. This program helps young people save lives for many years to come. Read more.
July 2019: Oscoda leukemia survivor to meet her life-saving stem cell donor
An Oscoda mother who battled a severe form of leukemia will meet and learn the identity of her life-saving blood stem cell transplant donor in Florida on Tuesday, July 30. The meeting will be streamed live at 6:30 p.m., at https://www.facebook.com/giftoflife/. It is also planned for the video to be archived and available post-meeting, as well, on Facebook. Read the article.
July 2019: Chevy Charity Challenge
The LA Galaxy Foundation, Chevrolet and LA Galaxy players have teamed up to launch the Chevrolet Charity Challenge, a competition to raise awareness and donations for local Community Partners. Eight LA Galaxy Players will compete and be rewarded for completing designated tasks at upcoming games. Click here to learn more.
July 2019: Together We Are Saving Lives
by Naomi Balaban
Roughly 2.5 years ago while on the Nativ College Gap Year Program, I found myself sitting in the basement of a Jerusalem hostel with the rest of my group. Just like most gap year programs and birthright groups in Israel, we had a representative from The Gift of Life Marrow Registry come to inform and educate us about the registry and most of all, empower us to swab and potentially save a life. Read the article.
July 2019: Naples boy fights for his life as he awaits a bone marrow transplant
by Michael Mora and Channing Frampton
A simple swab of your cheek could help save a local boy. That is the message a Naples mom is desperate to get out. “It all started with him getting sick on a Saturday morning with the flu,” Grae Salerno said. “By Sunday, we had to rush him to the ER.” Grae’s son, Dalton, is fighting for his life after a sudden diagnosis of aplastic anemia in April. The condition is when the bone marrow stops working. Read the article and watch video.
June 2019: Highland Park bone marrow donor and young recipient remain ‘like family’
by Debra Rubin
Mark DeFrancesco Jr., 26, never expected to see adulthood. When he was a child he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and at the age of 9, chemotherapy and radiation withered his body down to around 30 pounds. He was in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, but despite testing drives throughout his home state of Connecticut and the support of his local community, no match had been found for DeFrancesco. Then “like a miracle,” he told NJJN, a matching bone marrow donor, Samuel Aronoff of Highland Park, was found. Read the article.
June 2019: For Stem Cell Recipient, Meeting Donor Proves Fruitful Experience
As a fruit and vegetable farmer, Douglas Young measures his life’s work by the seasons. Since receiving a stem cell transplant for his rare blood cancer, he has been able to enjoy more harvests than he once thought possible — inspiring him to seek out the stranger responsible for saving his life. In spring 2019, Young, a 62-year-old grandfather took a break from his Woodstock, Connecticut orchards and traveled to Boston for hellos and hugs with Timothy Hahn, the New Jersey accountant whose stem cell donation put Young on the road to recovery in 2016. Read the article.
June 2019: Friesen’s busy senior year filled with memories
by Luke Peterson
The 2018-19 school year was a busy and successful one for Jace Friesen. The senior was on teams that went far in the state tournaments and a recipient of many awards during his final high school year. Friesen was asked what his favorite memories were in such an eventful year. “Wow, this is a tough question,” Friesen said. “My favorite athletic memory would be in football. It would be the touchdown I had this year against Eudora" ... Through the help of his mother, Friesen also set up a bone marrow registry drive through the Gift of Life foundation and got nearly 100 applicants. Read the article.
June 2019: How we searched for a marrow donor for a man from the USA in Belarus: We found him again 25 years later
Note: This article is in Russian. After opening the page you should see a pop-up that asks "Translate this page?" Click on the "Translate" button to read the article in English.
by Alexander Lychavko
[translated] A descendant of people from the Grodno area searched for a marrow donor for four years, risking death. In 1994, an advertisement appeared in the Belarusian newspapers: they were looking for a donor for the American guy Jay Feinberg. Without a transplant, the guy was waiting to die. By that time, about fifty thousand people around the world had passed the test - but there was no coincidence. And then the Jay team decided to search in Belarus, because his great-grandfather lived near Grodno. Now Jay Feinberg runs the famous Gift of Life foundation, which allows you to find blood donors or bone marrow. The Village Belarus understood the history of the miraculous life-saving and talked with Jay, for the sake of which 60 thousand people all over the world donated their blood for analysis. Read the article.
June 2019: Official Philanthropy Program Spotlight: Gift of Life Marrow Registry
While many gifts are given with unselfish intentions, only one gift can be commended for total altruism. Gift of Life Marrow Registry enables those who are able to give, connect with those who need. You might not have heard of them referred to as “general blood cancers” before, but leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma – all originating in blood and bone marrow – were responsible for almost 10% of deaths from cancer in 2018. Gift of Life grows its registry database each day in hopes of facilitating bone marrow transplants when matches are found for both children and adults. So, what would happen if Gift of Life gave AEPi the chance to give? What if a donor registry joined forces with the Jewish fraternity instilled with an incredibly prominent sense of Tikkun Olam? The results from the last 15 years of Brother involvement are extraordinary. Read the article.
June 2019: Pasco County monther given gift of life from stranger in California
A Pasco County mother facing a leukemia battle received a life-saving transplant from a stranger in California. A simple walk with her twins, Colton and Kylee, means everything to Amber Delgado. Her health took an unexpected turn back in 2012, before they were born. "I went to the hospital with a pain on my left side. My spleen was four-times bigger than what it was supposed to be," Delgado said. "They told me that I had cancer and it was called chronic myelogenous leukemia." Read the story and watch the video.
June 2019: Vanessa Bayer is Pro-Joking About Childhood Cancer
by Madison Medeiros
What are kids to do when life spirals out of their control and bad things happen to their loved ones? Those are the questions actress Vanessa Bayer tackles in her first children’s book, How Do You Care for a Very Sick Bear?, a heartfelt story about sickness and the friendships that help make the hard times a bit more manageable. Read the article.
June 2019: 36 Under 36: Adena Philips, Consulting for Meaningful Change
by Shira Hanau
Adena Philips was 11 when the founders of the bone marrow registry organization Gift of Life [Marrow Registry] came to speak at her synagogue in Toronto. Too young to join the registry herself, she started selling pens to raise money for the organization. While working as a consultant at Deloitte about 10 years later, she was approached by a friend to do a side project for a nonprofit organization. She asked which one it was and when she heard the name, she had to say yes. It was Gift of Life. Read the article.
June 2019: 11-year-old St. Pete boy dances while waiting for a bone marrow donation for his rare blood disorder
May 2019: Health Beat with Kathryn Davis: Conversation with Jay Feinberg, CEO of Gift of Life Marrow Registry
Kathryn Davis has two short conversation with Gift of Life's CEO about how easy it is to join the registry, and how simple and safe the stem cell donation process is that can cure leukemia and other diseases. Click here to listen to the radio segments.
May 2019: Leslie mom gets to tell her donor a simple truth: 'Without you, I would not be here.'
by Judy Putnam
Michele Rudd says she wouldn’t be here if not for the selfless act of a college student who volunteered to swab his cheek. That cheek swab eventually led to a life-saving bone marrow transplant for the 46-year-old Leslie mother of four. Rudd got to meet the donor, Jakob Gillberg, 28, of Allston, Massachusetts, at a celebration by the Gift of Life Marrow Registry in Boston in early May. Read the story and watch the video.
May 2019: Woodmere bone marrow donor reunites with his recipient at Citi Field
by Matthew Ferremi
Woodmere resident Dr. Adam Lish was not at Citi Field on May 20 just to watch his beloved New York Mets play the Washington Nationals. He was also there to reunite with a special individual. Lish and Brian Veith, 24, of Burlington, Conn., reconnected after 15 years, when Lish donated his bone marrow to the then 9-year-old Veith, who had immune disorder, familial erythrocytosis lymphohistiocytosis. The reunion was through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Read the story.
May 2019: A second chance at life
by Leila Jackson
When Ryan Corning ’18 joined the Gift of Life Marrow Registry the summer prior to coming to Elon to study mathematics, he never fully expected that he would one day become a donor. Then during his sophomore year in college, he got a call saying he was a match for someone who had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a rare and rapidly progressing form of blood cancer. Read the story.
May 2019: 'That may well be the future': Companies have poured $8.5 billion into creating a new version of a cutting-edge, highly personalized cancer treatment
by Emma Court
Wendy Fullem, a 54-year-old administrator at a New Jersey college, hadn't been feeling well for some time when, in fall 2016, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Leukemia is a type of blood cancer that comes in many forms. There were about 60,000 new cases in the US last year, and one treatment option is a bone marrow transplant, a decades-old scientific procedure that has potential to treat upwards of 70 different diseases, including many types of cancer. Doctors quickly shuttled Fullem into an intense, weeks-long process of chemotherapy, followed by the transplant. Read the article.
May 2019: Woman meets bone marrow donor who saved her life
by Shaun Chaiyabhat
May 2019: A Prominent Jewish Humanitarian Prize Goes to a Criminal Justice Reformer
by Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Amy Bach’s work is making a concrete difference in the criminal justice system. In 2011, Bach started Measures for Justice, a nonprofit that archives criminal justice records from counties across the U.S. in one easily accessed online portal. Read the article.
May 2019: New stem cell collection center opens
by Beverly Robertson
The Gift of Life Marrow Registry has opened a new stem cell collection center in Boca Raton. Officials say the new location will make it easier and faster than ever before for donors to save the lives of patients worldwide dealing with blood cancers. The new 22,00 square-foot headquarters becomes the first marrow registry to integrate a state-of-the-art, on -site stem cell collection into its features. The new model will also provide access to video games, movies, massages and gourmet meals with the hopes both patients and donors will be comfortable. Read the article and watch video.
May 2019: Gift of Life Marrow Registry Grand Opening
May 2019: Boca Raton Headquarters Creating Jobs and Curing Blood Cancer
by Kristen Boyd
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (BDB), in cooperation with the City of Boca Raton, is pleased to announce that Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a company saving lives for those suffering from certain blood cancers by matching marrow and stem cell donors with those in need, has officially moved into its new 17,465 sq. ft. global headquarters for Bone Marrow Registry & Collection Center. The company will add 17 new jobs to its existing workforce of 43 and will add the first-of-its-kind apheresis center to Florida at its corporate headquarters located at 5901 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 600 in Boca Raton, Florida. Read the article.
April 2019: Gift of LIfe opens new stem cell donation center
by Miranda Christian
The Gift of Life Marrow Registry opened up its global headquarters on Tuesday in Boca Raton. The one-of-a-kind registry will offer stem cell collection at the donation center. CEO Jay Feinberg said this will help cut down transplant times for those waiting for a bone marrow donor. Feinberg started Gift of Life after he waited four years to find his perfect match. “Ultimately I found my match out of the last donor drive we did,” he said. The center offered a relaxing place for donors to sit and even watch TV while they donate. “We want to treat them like the heroes they are,” said Feinberg. Read the article.
April 2019: Stem Cell Recipient Meets Donor at Gift of Life Walk
April 2019: In Boston Stepping Up for Life
by Ronni Gordon, Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient and Cancer Survivor
My sister drove me to so many doctor visits and hospital trips that I lost count, so it was a great counterpoint for her to drive me to something super fun and celebratory: The Steps for Life 5K to benefit The Gift of Life, the organization that got me my bone marrow donor. Read the article on Ronni's award-winning blog, Running for My Life: Fighting Cancer One Step at a Time.
April 2019: Be a Hero - Become a Bone Marrow Donor with the 501st Legion
In November of 2018, Nicholas McClary, a very bright and caring teenager lost his life after battling cancer for three years. Despite beating cancer after two years of treatment, his lungs began being destroyed by a condition of his bone marrow transplant called GVHD, or Graft Vs. Host Disease. Only 2% of the population in the United States is even registered as a donors, yet over 2,000 kids lose their lives just like Nicholas because they are unable to find a perfect match. Read the article.
April 2019: First-ever integrated stem cell collection center opens in Florida
The new Gift of Life headquarters, a 22,000-square-foot facility in Boca Raton, Florida, is the first marrow registry to integrate a state-of-the-art, on-site stem cell collection center. The organization is also planning a future biobank that will enable it to provide additional services. Read the article.
April 2019: Boca Raton father raises awareness about bone marrow donations after losing son to leukemia
by Miranda Christian
Read the article and watch other videos about this story.
April 2019: Courtney Hatton [Gift of Life Campus Ambassador] overcomes obstacles, writes her own success story
by Beth Staples
Courtney Hatton will earn her undergraduate degree in biology May 11 at the University of Maine. She started college 11 years ago. Along the way, she’s encountered obstacles. The last two years at UMaine, the native of Molunkus, Maine has simultaneously worked as many as eight part-time jobs while carrying a full course load. And she’s written her own success story. “You can turn things around, even if awful things happen along the way,” Hatton says. “You can get over those speed bumps.” Read the article.
April 2019: Delray Beach Pickleball Club joins forces with Valencia Palms to benefit Gift of Life Marrow Registry
by Gary Curreri
The Delray Beach Pickleball Club recently joined forces with the Valencia Palms Gift of Life Club to hold the third annual round-robin pickleball tournament to benefit the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. A total of 64 players, in addition to numerous volunteers and spectators, lined the courts at the Delray Beach Tennis Center to help those battling blood diseases find a cure through marrow and stem cell donation. Read the article.
April 2019: Student Alliance for Israel to hold first IC Loves Israel day
by Krissy Waite
Ithaca College’s Students Alliance for Israel (SAFI) club will be hosting the first “IC Loves Israel Day” to celebrate Israeli culture April 28. Nonprofit organizations like Save a Child’s Heart, which focuses on providing pediatric cardiac care to children in developing countries, and the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, an organization that focuses on facilitating and collecting bone marrow transplants, will be at the event. Read the article.
April 2019: Julio and Ryan (USA)
In November 2015, Manhattan resident Julio Rivera suddenly found himself in a fight for his life. A routine dental procedure that would not stop bleeding sent him to the emergency room, but the result was a shock to Julio and his family: he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He needed a stem cell transplant to have any hope of survival, and fortunately he found one in the Gift of Life registry. Now, he was ready to meet the young man whose generous donation had saved his life. Read the article.
April 2019: Union Lacrosse: A Legacy of Saving Lives
by Steve Sheridan
The Union College men's lacrosse team may be nationally ranked this season due to their play on the field, but in recent years the Dutchmen also have been a national leader in a much more important category: saving lives through bone marrow drives and donations. For nearly a decade, the men's lacrosse program has led bone marrow drives on campus and have had no fewer than four players who have donated bone marrow in the hopes of saving a life. Read the article.
March 2019: Separated by a country, joined by a life saving donation
by Angel Carreras
A young Santa Monica man recently had the chance to meet a woman whose life he saved with a stem cell donation. Jonah Sharf met Amber Delgado this past Monday, March 25 at a Gift of Life Marrow Registry reception held in Washington, D.C. Sharf joined the marrow registry in 2017 on a whim during a Birthright Israel trip and was called to donate to Delgado, who had leukemia, just five months later. Read the article.
March 2019: SNL's Vanessa Bayer Talks Battling Leukemia and Her Epic End-of-Chemo Party
Vanessa Bayer is eternally cheerful ― even when she’s talking about her battle with blood cancer. The star, who after seven seasons of and Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy sketches, recently spoke with HuffPost about having leukemia as a teenager and her new partnership with ― a bone marrow registry dedicated to fighting blood cancer. Read the article.
March 2019: FSU students honored during 2019 President’s Humanitarian Luncheon
by Kelsey Klopfenstein
From ratifying amendments to registering bone marrow donors to teaching courses in Kenya and rural India, students at Florida State University have done more than just balance studies and a social life; they’ve changed lives. President John Thrasher recognized 14 undergraduate students at the Humanitarian Luncheon Tuesday, March 26, as part of the annual President’s Humanitarian of the Year program. Read the article.
March 2019: How you can give the Gift of Life
This interview between Dr. Michael Roizen and Jay Feinberg, founder and CEO of Gift of Life Marrow Registry was featured on RadioMD podcasts, Episode 935B. Listen to the podcast.
March 2019: Saving Lives One Swab at a Time: Meet Jen Magi
by Molly Wexler
Did you know that just swabbing your cheek could potentially save a life? Gift of Life is an incredible organization that hosts drives all over the country to find genetic bone marrow matches for those afflicted with various blood cancers and blood disorders. This organization works with the ever-growing global bone marrow registry to continue finding genetic matches for patients. Jen Magi, the ambitious President of GOL at FSU, shares her story on how she became involved and how the organization has grown. Read the article.
March 2019: The treatment that cured 2 men of HIV may also help with a remarkable array of more than 70 deadly diseases
by Emma Court
The second person ever appears to have been successfully cured of HIV, a viral infection that attacks the body's immune system and can worsen into the devastating disease AIDS. The treatment wasn't a new scientific technique or high-tech drug. Instead, the cure was an accidental side-effect of a decades-old medical procedure that was once the basis for a Nobel Prize: a bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow transplants have shown remarkable results in more than 70 different diseases, a wide-ranging list that includes cancers, inherited disorders and diseases of the immune system. Read the article.
March 2019: Bronx man who battled sickle cell anemia meets his lifesaving marrow donor for first time
A Bronx, N.Y. man finally met the St. Paul, Minn. woman who saved his life with a bone marrow transplant through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, at Gift of Life’s Cocktails and Conversation event on Thursday night. During a highly emotional meeting, Nelson Sanchez, 18, a college student majoring in business administration, embraced Becky Lyle-Sulkin, 30, a program coordinator at Jewish Family and Children’s Service in Minneapolis. Sanchez’s recovery from sickle cell anemia marks the first time a Gift of Life Marrow Registry donor has cured a recipient with that disease. Read the article.
March 2019: Springfield cancer survivor meets donor who saved life
by Liv Meier
For more than a year, Michelle Sion had been thinking about meeting the stem cell donor who had saved her life, but she didn’t think she’d meet him on a stage in New York City. Sion, who has lived in Springfield for almost 30 years, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in July 2017, and began looking for a stem cell donor soon after that. Read the article.
March 2019: SLS Hotel event celebrates those who give the Gift of Life
On a 2004 trip to Israel, Beverly Hills resident Abraham Zilkha had his cheek swabbed to see if he would be a match for someone in need of a transplant of bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells, which can help replenish marrow and create new blood cells. Over the next 10 years, Zilkha was contacted once by the Gift of Life Marrow Registry about being a potential match for someone in need of a transplant, but the ensuing blood work showed he wouldn’t be a good fit. But in 2014, Zilkha got another call, and this time, he was given a chance to help. Read the article.
March 2019: Marrow Registry chooses Palm Beach County to launch first-ever integrated Stem Cell Collection Center
The Gift of Life Marrow Registry will open Palm Beach County’s first-ever stem cell collection center, making it easier and faster than ever before for donors to save the lives of patients worldwide battling blood cancer. Gift of Life is relocating in April to new and larger headquarters, and will become the first marrow registry to integrate a state-of-the-art, on-site stem cell collection center into its principle location. Read the article.
March 2019: Jacksonville man meets bone marrow donor after five years
Two strangers from across the country have formed a friendship after one gives the gift of life. Scott Gray, a Jacksonville local, and former Marine traveled to California over the weekend to meet the man who has given him a second chance at life. Gray was diagnosed with leukemia in 2014. He received a bone marrow transplant with the help from the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. His donor is first-time donor Abraham Zilkha from California. Read the article.
March 2019: Gift of Life: You can be the cure
by Laureen Hogan
Every four minutes, a child or adult in the United States is diagnosed with some form of blood cancer, ultimately affecting nearly 170,000 people each year ... The shortage of registered bone marrow donors leaves many patients waiting years to receive a transplant, if ever. Gift of Life at Grand Valley State University recognizes the need for more donors and encouraged more than 100 people to step up at their registration event last week. Read the article.
March 2019: Nation's First Stem Cell Collection Center Operated by a Public Marrow Registry to Open in South Florida
The Gift of Life Marrow Registry will become the nation’s first marrow registry to operate its own stem cell collection center, making it easier and faster than ever before for volunteer donors to save the lives of patients battling blood cancer around the world. Located within its new 22,000 square foot headquarters, the center will feature a warm, inviting, spa-like atmosphere focused entirely on the donor’s experience. Read the article.
March 2019: Watch Incredible Moment Woman Meets Person Who Gave Her Life-Saving Donation
by Molly Ade
Michelle Sion is getting the incredible opportunity to meet the person who gave her a life-saving donation. 56-year-old Michelle went to the doctor in 2017 when she was having difficulties making it through a workout. What doctors initially thought was a fungal infection turned out to be a life-changing diagnosis. Michelle had acute myeloid leukemia, and would need a stem cell transplant. Fortunately for her, Noah Starr, a 23-year-old from Dallas, Texas, had joined The Gift of Life Marrow Registry just months earlier. Read the article.
March 2019: Running for a Cause
by Shira Zwebner
The International Jerusalem Winner’s Marathon, celebrating nine years on March 15, has become a modern-day pilgrimage for more than just competitive athletes. Running through 3,000 years of history, crossing over hallowed grounds, jogging through winding cobblestone pathways, and walking through neighborhoods where the ancient and modern diverge and converge is life changing. Sharing this experience with thousands of fellow runners and Israel supporters is potentially transformative. Read the article.
February 2019: Sharing the gift of life – Stem cell donor and Springfield recipient meet for the first time
by Johanna R. Ginsberg
Noah Starr, now 23, and a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, swabbed his cheek with his entire group on a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip in May 2017. The swabbing was sponsored by Gift of Life Marrow Registry; the DNA collected is entered into a database for potential matches. A few months later, Starr received a call that he could be a match. Meanwhile, in a nearly identical time frame, Michelle Sion of Springfield, now 56, went from being an active, healthy person working at the JCC of Scotch Plains to not being able to climb a flight of stairs. Read the article.
February 2019: Bone marrow registration drive addresses need for Hispanic donors
by Audrey Wheeler
Bone marrow donations can save the lives of people affected by leukemia, lymphoma and other blood-related diseases. Unfortunately, a large disparity exists when it comes down to establishing a match between donor and recipient. The Mexican American Student Association (MASA) at Florida State University recently hosted a bone marrow registration drive and information event in an effort to address this vast gap. Read the article.
February 2019: Gift of Life: Supplying blood [stem cell] donors to save lives
Gift of Life is dedicated to saving lives of all who need a transplant to save their lives. Founder and CEO Jay Feinberg has made the registry’s home in Palm Beach County. With an eye toward discovery, Feinberg has put the area on the worldwide stage as a place for lifesaving innovation. Gift of Life also serves the Palm Beach County community by adding a first-of-its-kind stem-cell collection center in 2019. Read the article.
February 2019: Blockchain and the new frontier of lifestyle genetics
by Melissa Jun Rowley
Once upon a time, DNA collecting and sequencing was used primarily for medical purposes or in forensic science, known to the general public as the gathering of genetics for criminal investigations. Today, our genes are used to provide insights into a lot more—including what our perfect diet is, the best exercises for us, and our learning style. Read the article.
February 2019: The Gift of Life: Two Donations, Power of One
by Rachel Pleet
I moved to Israel from the United States in July of 2017, but the meaning of my Aliyah deepened significantly a few months later when I got a call from the Gift of Life Marrow Registry that I was a match. A perfect match in fact, for a 72-year-old female dying of Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) … it changed my life. I was incredibly honored that I could be her cure. Read the article.
February 2019: As bone marrow donor, Las Vegas woman answers call to save a life
by Camalot Todd
About five years ago, Las Vegan Tiffany Gordon decided to become a bone-marrow donor. Her decision to volunteer her DNA (sic) to a bone-marrow registry to help those battling blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma was inspired by her desire to serve the community. “It's such an amazing opportunity to be able to help someone in this situation,” Gordon said. “I would just hope that if I were ever in a situation like this, or anyone in my family … that someone would be there to help them," she said. Read the article.
February 2019: A stem cell transplant with a twist. 'They are connected in so many ways'
by Justine Griffin
It's been years since they met, but Nicki Kremer and Richard Davis remember every detail. Kremer, a college student at the time, and her family were waiting at Tampa International Airport for Davis to arrive from Kentucky. Her hair was still short from the chemotherapy ... Now 38, she’s in remission, thanks to the stranger from Kentucky who donated stem cells for a transplant. Read the article.
February 2019: Shliach Donates Bone Marrow
by Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum
More than 20 years ago I swabbed for Gift of Life Marrow Registry and never thought about it again… until 2 years ago when I received a call that I was a match. After some delays, 18 months ago I was able to donate. This week I finally met my new brother Michael Josephs and it was an overwhelming and incredible moment for both of us. It is hard to describe the feeling of having played a role in giving someone the opportunity to live, to be healthy again, to spend time with his grandchildren, and to, G-d willing, have many more years of life to enjoy. Read the article.
February 2019: Ferndale Man Shares Story of Donating Marrow in Hopes of More Lives Saved
by Crystal A. Proxmire
Blake’s smiling face was missed around the Ferndale community for a few days, but it wasn’t a vacation that took the busy banker out of town. He was off in Washington, D.C., donating bone marrow to try and save the life of a 57-year-old man that he’s never even met. Read the article.
January 2019: Cancer-Free Man Meets Donor Who Saved His Life
January 2019: Gift of Life Marrow Registry 5k
January 2019: A True Gift of Life
Each summer for the past several years, we have run a drive during Coleman’s Staff Week for the Gift of Life donor registry. In 2014, Ryan Corning, a former Coleman staff member and NFTY-STR teen, participated in the drive at camp. Over a year ago, Ryan was found to be a match for a man diagnosed with Leukemia. Ryan jumped at the chance to save a life of a person he had never met, and he did just that. Yesterday, Ryan met for the first time ever the man whose life he saved. Read the article.
January 2019: Cancer patient from New York meets stem cell donor who saved his life
A cancer patient from New York got the chance to thank the man who gave him a second chance at life, travelling to Florida to meet his stem cell donor. And when you see Julio Rivera and Ryan Corning together, you'd think they've been best friends for life. But they're actually seeing each other for the first time. Watch video of event and read article.
January 2019: New York man receives life-saving transplant courtesy of Florida man
by Jeff Lennox
A stranger and another man who gave him a second chance at life met face-to-face in South Florida. When 50-year-old Julio Rivera, of New York, needed a transplant to save his life, a 23-year-old Florida man stepped in to answer his prayers. Both were invited to a charity event in Boca Raton. If you saw them today, you’d think they’ve been best friends for life, but they’re actually seeing each other for the first time. “I was diagnosed with AML leukemia in 2015 in November,” Rivera said. “The saddest day of my life.” Rivera found relief to his condition through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. His savior: Ryan Corning. Watch video of event and read article.
January 2019: New York cancer patient meets Florida stem cell donor
A cancer patient in New York has a second chance at life thanks to a 23-year-old man in Florida. If you saw them today, you'd think they've known each other forever. However, Julio Rivera and Ryan Corning only just recently met. "I was diagnosed with AML leukemia in 2015 in November, and, the saddest day of my life," Rivera described. But through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, Rivera found relief to his condition. Watch video of event and read article.
January 2019: Gift of Life Marrow Registry holds 'Steps for Life 5k' event in Boca Raton
Gift of Life Marrow Registry held its annual "Steps for Life 5K" race Sunday at the South County Regional Park in Boca Raton. Gift of Life Marrow Registry, headquartered in Boca Raton, is a public bone marrow and blood stem cell registry that helps with transplants for children and adults suffering from leukemia, lymphoma other cancers and genetic diseases. Watch video of event and read article.
January 2019: "He saved my life:" Bone marrow patient meets the donor that helped fight his cancer
January 2019: Philanthropy a main initiative of NC State’s Greek life
by Alex Berenfeld
As part of NC State’s fraternity and sorority life, emphasis on philanthropy is a significant goal for each chapter. The chapters focus on individual service initiatives and seeks to raise money through various events and projects, as well as to spread awareness on issues to the NC State community. Read the article.
2018
December 2018: Growing Gift of Life Marrow Registry keeps moving forward
by Faygie Hold
In 1991, Jay Feinberg was facing a battle with leukemia and needed a bone-marrow transplant. Some 55,000 people got tested in the hopes of finding him a suitable match. Four years later and facing a critical moment in his illness, a match was finally found. Today, he is committed to helping others find life-saving bone-marrow and stem-cell matches through the nonprofit he founded, the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Read the article.
December 2018: Blood, sweat and bone marrow for future Eagle Scout
by Simone Johnson
Theodore Mitchell is just like your average teenager. He participates in obstacle training known as parkour, taught himself to play guitar and piano, and he’s organizing a bone marrow drive in an effort to save the lives of others. The 17-year-old Boy Scout is on a mission to achieve his last merit badge, the final obstacle in his path to becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Scouting. With the help of the Gift of Life, a public bone marrow and blood stem cell registry, Mitchell is leading a drive. Read the article.
December 2018: Eckerd grad donates bone marrow
by Caroline Kelley
2016 Eckerd graduate Colleen Owen is being praised as a hero for donating her bone marrow and spreading the word about the importance of bone marrow donation ... She got a call from the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, who told her that she was a perfect match for a seriously ill patient in Florida in need of a stem-cell transplant. Owen decided to go donate her healthy marrow to the patient. Read the article.
December 2018: ‘SNL’ Alum Vanessa Bayer Opens Up About Battling Leukemia
by Kelly Butler
Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer recently sat down with the Huffington Post and opened up about her battle with leukemia, and how she is now helping others affected by the disease. Bayer, who was diagnosed with blood cancer at 15-years old, had a form of the disease known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a childhood cancer that affects the bone marrow. Read the article.
December 2018: SNL’s Vanessa Bayer Talks Battling Leukemia And Her Epic End-Of-Chemo Party
by Carly Ledbetter
Vanessa Bayer is eternally cheerful ― even when she’s talking about her battle with blood cancer. The “Saturday Night Live” star, who left the show in 2017 after seven seasons of Rachel Green impressions and Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy sketches, recently spoke with HuffPost about having leukemia as a teenager and her new partnership with Gift of Life Marrow Registry ― a bone marrow registry dedicated to fighting blood cancer. Read the article.
December 2018: Vanessa Bayer was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 15—here’s how she turned her survival into success
By Abigail Hess
Over her seven seasons on “Saturday Night Live,” Vanessa Bayer became a favorite for creating characters like Jacob, the smiley bar mitzvah boy, Laura Parsons, the smiley kid reporter, and Dawn Lazarus, the nervous — but still smiley — weekend meteorologist. She was also known for impressions, like Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel, from “Friends,” and Miley Cyrus. Read article and view video.
December 2018: Former SNL Star Vanessa Bayer Talks Battling Leukemia, Reality TV Binging and Gift of Life Registry
by Megan O'Neill
Since her departure from Saturday Night Live in 2017, the grinning, bubbly and Emmy-nominated Vanessa Bayer has been missed at Studio 8H, having kept us laughing as Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy and chirpy meteorologist Dawn Lazarus, among other unforgettable characters. The veteran of 7 SNL seasons had a different career path than her co-stars: a Leukemia diagnosis at age 15 ultimately led her to comedy. Bayer is now a 20-year cancer survivor and this season is teaming up with Gift of Life, a non-profit bone marrow and blood stem cell registry that connects blood cancer patients to donors. Read the article.
December 2018: Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry Delivers Holiday Miracle For Family
When we say gift of life, we usually think of organ donation. There’s another, much easier way to give the gift of life through bone marrow or stem cell donation, reports CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez. Now during the Festival of Lights, a young Jewish family wants people to know how that gift saved their son’s life. You would never know it looking at 6-year-old Idan Zablocki playing with his mom and baby sister, but Idan was born with a lethal immune system defect.“He couldn’t make antibodies and he got a very rare pneumonia,” said Akiva, Idan’s father. “Terrifying, we were told he had a 50 percent chance of dying,” said mother Amanda. Idan survived his pneumonia but the only cure for his immune deficit was a bone marrow transplant. Read the article and watch the video.
December 2018: Game Changer Women of Grace Honors Leaders, Raises Money for Bethesda
by Marisa Herman
The 2018 Women of Grace Honorees were: Beth Schatman- Alzheimer’s Community Care; Gail Oliver- Gift of Life Marrow Registry; 2018 Future Woman of Grace: Isabella Diefendorf- American Heritage; Patricia Tormey- Forgotten Soldiers Outreach; Debralynn Belletieri- American Association of Caregiving Youth; and Deborah Dowd- Achievement Centers for Children & Families. Read the article.
November 2018: Raising Awareness of the Gift of Life
by Camilla Arntzen
To get the important message out about bone marrow donations, Gift of Life is kicking off the #SwabSameach campaign featuring Vanessa Bayer of Saturday Night Live (SNL) fame. The campaign encourages people to wish their friends and family “Swab Sameach” instead of “Chag Sameach” (Happy Holiday) by creating a special menorah and sharing it on their social channels. People can head to www.giftoflife.org/hanukkah to spread the word. The campaign officially launches on Friday, November 30th. Read the article and watch the video.
November 2018: Kim Kardashian West introduces Thorpe stem cell recipient, donor
by Jarrad Hedes
A little over a year after his life was saved through a successful stem cell transplant, Tony Wolfe finally got the chance to say thank you. The former corrections officer from Jim Thorpe met his donor, Alan Weinberg, at the Gift of Life Gala in Beverly Hills on Oct. 29. “I was nervous,” Wolfe said. “How do you say thank you for something like that? He’s a hero to me.” Read the story.
November 2018: Jim Thorpe Man Is Given A Second Chance With Help From A Pop Culture Icon
by Ben Stemrich
Tony Wolfe of Jim Thorpe was diagnosed with leukemia in 2017. This isn't the first time the Wolfe family has had to fight cancer. Tony lost his son Hunter in 2011. Tony has now been in remission for 14 months. Tony says he thanks his family, a donor, and an [sic] celebrity...Kim Kardashian. Watch video.
November 2018: Chanukah-themed campaign aims to find bone marrow, stem cell donors
Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a nonprofit bone marrow and blood stem cell registry that facilitates transplants, is holding a #SwabSameach campaign to encourage donation. The campaign ask participants to decorate a menorah online to draw attention to the issue, as well as get swabbed to see if one could be a match for someone needing a transplant. Actress Vanessa Bayer, a former Ohio resident and leukemia survivor, is working with the group to raise awareness, according to a news release. Read the article.
November 2018: Gift of Life Marrow Registry gives hope for patients
by William Dean
Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer in the United States, according to Gift of Life, a nonprofit that aims to sign people up for the bone marrow registry ... Mikalaa Martin, 20, became a campus ambassador for Gift of Life. She said her mother received a bone marrow transplant for severe aplastic anemia in December 2017, after multiple other treatments failed to help. Martin said the transplant allowed her mother to go on walks again and do chores around the house she wasn’t able to do while on immunosuppressant treatment. Read the story.
November 2018: Rabbi Eli Gives the Gift of Life
Rabbi Eli Wilansky has a fascinating story, starting with a teacher who was ill, to being a father who donates bone marrow to save a life. Eli Wilansky was born in Montreal Canada, to a large family of 14 children. While still in elementary school, Eli had a teacher who contracted a devastating illness. In an attempt to find him a life saving match, the Gift of Life came to Montreal to collect swabs and match a potential Marrow donor. With the thought that he might be able to help his teacher, Eli got swabbed. Read the article.
November 2018: Community comes together at FSU's Light the Night Walk
The community is coming together on Florida State University’s campus to raise support for cancer research at FSU's Light the Night Walk. This year, the organization is focusing on raising support for cancer research through the help of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society as well as the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. As people gather at Langford Green, a celebrating ceremony will be held to celebrate those who fought their battle against cancer. View the video.
November 2018: Marrow drive find success on campus
by Emily Turner
Over the past two weeks, more than 50 people have registered for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry in response to student tabling in the Memorial Union by the University of Maine Gift of Life group. Courtney Hatton, a fourth-year biology student, and Rachel Emerich, a fourth-year nursing student, are both campus ambassadors for the Gift of Life Marrow Registry and started the donor drive on campus. Read the article.
October 2018: Sheldon Adelson, mega-donor to Israel, announces favorite charity
As dozens of cameras flashed in Cipriani’s 42nd Street, billionaire Sheldon Adelson slowly made his way up to the stage. Wearing a crisply tailored royal blue suit, lavender tie and matching pocket square, the 85 year old casino mogul waved his hand and his bodyguard slunk back into the shadows. With people willing to pay $50,000 just to have lunch with him, it isn’t every day you get to see one of the world’s richest men up close and personal and the New York City socialites who had gathered all leaned forward and held their breath. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian Honored at First [Los Angeles] Gift of Life Marrow Registry Gala
Kim Kardashian West was honored with the first Gift of Life Impact Award, at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s Inaugural One Huge Night Gala in Los Angeles on Oct. 29 at the SLS Beverly Hills. Kardashian West, of L.A., was recognized for her support for Gift of Life and the “Hope4Adam” campaign. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian honored for bone marrow effort to save Jewish man
Kardashian West received the Impact Award from the Gift of Life Marrow Registry Monday. In 2016 she alerted her followers on social media to help a young Jewish father named Adam Krief, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer and required a life-saving bone marrow transplant. She was recognized for her support for Gift of Life and the “Hope4Adam” campaign. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian West honored for connecting organ donor and recipient
Kim Kardashian West was honored with the first Gift of Life Impact Award for helping to connect an organ donor and his recipient through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Kardashian West was recognized for her support for Gift of Life and the “Hope4Adam” campaign, which in 2016 sought to find a matching donor for a young Jewish father named Adam Krief, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer and required a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian West Honored at Gift of Life's One Huge Night Gala
by Jenna Marotta
At the Gift of Life Gala in Beverly Hills, Tony Wolfe met the man who saved him from afar. A Pennsylvania Department of Corrections veteran, last year Wolfe learned he had leukemia, the same disease that killed his 12-year-old son. Alan Weinberg, a Queens, New York man found via the namesake non-profit’s bone marrow and stem cell registry, donated stem cells that proved vital to Wolfe’s cancer fight. Introducing the pair Monday night was none other then Kim Kardashian West. Read the article.
October 2018: Doctor meets woman whose life he saved with his stem cells
by Paula Katinas
Dr. Peter Gold, an orthopedic surgeon, saved a woman’s life — but he didn’t need a scalpel to do it. Gold saved 54-year-old Wendy Fullem’s life by donating his stem cells to her. Gold, 28, who lives in Williamsburg, and Fullem, a New Jersey resident suffering from leukemia, met for the first time a year after Gold’s donation, when they both took part in the recent Gift of Life Marrow Registry Steps for Life 5K at Battery Park. Read the article.
October 2018: SCCC staffer meets man who donated stem cells for her cancer treatment
by Kyle Morel
Less than two years after being diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening illness, everything is back to normal for Wendy Fullem, an executive assistant to the president and Board of Trustees at Sussex County Community College. Last weekend, she finally learned the identity of the man who made that return to normalcy possible. Fullem, a Wantage resident, was formally introduced to Peter Gold, a Brooklyn-based orthopedic surgery resident, at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry Steps for Life 5K in New York City on Oct. 14. Gold donated his stem cells in February 2017, laying the foundation for a major step in Fullem's recovery process after she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) three months earlier. Read the article.
October 2018: Gift of Life Mega-Drive Is a Success
Last week, volunteers at Vanderbilt helped lead a mega-drive for Gift of Life, one of the world’s leading bone marrow and stem cell registries. Gift of Life finds healthy donors for patients battling blood disorders in need of a life saving match through registering people around the country to increase the likelihood that these people will find a match. Read the article.
October 2018: Wagon Wheel Rivalry Sparks Bone Marrow Battle
by Tia Myers-Rocker
When Kent State University hosts its football rivals from the University of Akron this Saturday, October 20th, the schools will have already been competing for a week in a friendly battle to help people in need of bone marrow transplants. Each school has 1,200 kits on hand to collect swabs from people ages 18 to 45 who are in good health. Individuals accepted as donors will be contacted by Gift of Life, a bone marrow and blood stem cell registry in Florida. Read the article.
October 2018: No better gift: Organization makes stried in bone marrow donation and research
by Howard Blas
The Oct. 10 Gift of Life Gala raised $9.5 million, and honored Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson with the Partners for Life Award. It was an emotional affair, featuring a swab table, and moving stories of donors and recipients. To mark the gala, Gift of Life’s orange brand color lit the peak of the Empire State Building and Renaissance Clock in Times Square on Wednesday night, while the Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue glowed orange on Tuesday. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian to be recognised for helping Jewish father find bone marrow donor
Kim Kardashian West will be recognised for helping to connect an organ donor and recipient through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry .Kardashian West will be honoured Oct. 29 with the first Gift of Life Impact Award at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s inaugural One Huge Night Gala in Los Angeles. In September 2016, Kardashian West joined the drive to find a bone marrow donor for Adam Krief, a 31-year-old Jewish father of three from Israel, calling for help on her highly trafficked social media channels. Read the article.
October 2018: How a life-saving bone marrow donation forever linked a Long Beach man and an Inland Empire boy
by Rich Archbold
Ten-year-old Seth Akins was on the brink of death when his life was saved by a random stranger.
“It was truly a miracle,” said Seth’s mother, Renee Floriano, still crying tears of joy last week even though the medical procedure that saved her son’s life happened more than a year ago. Her son had severe aplastic anemia, a rare and potentially deadly condition that occurs when your body stops producing enough new blood cells to survive. After months of chemotherapy and other treatment, it was finally determined that the Menifee boy needed a bone marrow transplant to replace unhealthy marrow, the soft tissue inside bones that make blood stem cells which turn into blood cells. Read the article.
October 2018: Woman Meets Doctor Who Saved Her Life
October 2018: Kim Kardashian Honored for Bone Marrow Donor for 31-Year-Old Jew
Kim Kardashian West will be recognized for helping to connect an organ donor and recipient through the Gift of Life bone marrow registry. Kardashian West will be honored Oct. 29 with the first Gift of Life Impact Award at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s inaugural One Huge Night Gala in Los Angeles. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian Honored for Helping Israeli Find a Bone Marrow Match
Kardashian West will be honored October 29 with the first Gift of Life Impact Award at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s inaugural One Huge Night Gala in Los Angeles. In September 2016, Kardashian West joined the drive to find a bone marrow donor for Adam Krief, a 31-year-old Jewish father of three from Israel, calling for help on her highly trafficked social media channels. Kardashian West’s Facebook page has more than 29 million likes and she has more than 48 million Twitter followers. Read the article.
October 2018: Kardashian helps Jewish father find bone marrow donor
by Adina Katz
On September 27, 2016, Kim Kardashian West posted a request through social media for her tens of millions of followers to help find a matching bone marrow donor for Adam Krief, a 31-year-old Jewish-Israeli father of three. Within a few days, more than 10,000 fans answered that call, resulting in five new donor-recipient matches through the Gift of Life’s bone marrow registry as well as one transplant. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian West to be honored for helping Jewish father of 3 find bone marrow donor
Kim Kardashian West will be recognized for helping to connect an organ donor and recipient through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Kardashian West will be honored Oct. 29 with the first Gift of Life Impact Award at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry's inaugural One Huge Night Gala in Los Angeles. In September 2016, Kardashian West joined the drive to find a bone marrow donor for Adam Krief, a 31-year-old Jewish father of three from Israel. Read the article.
October 2018: Jewish group to honor Kim Kardashian for backing bone marrow search
Break Internet, Fix World: Celebrity shared bone marrow campaign to save father-of-three Adam Krief to millions of social media followers, leading to 4 matches and 1 transplant. In September 2016, Kardashian West joined the drive to find a bone marrow donor for Adam Krief, a 31-year-old Jewish father of three from Israel, calling for help on her highly trafficked social media channels. Kardashian West’s Facebook page has over 29 million likes and she has over 48 million Twitter followers. Read the article.
October 2018: Kim Kardashian to be honored for helping Jewish father of 3 find bone marrow donor
Kim Kardashian West will be recognized for helping to connect an organ donor and recipient through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Kardashian West will be honored Oct. 29 with the first Gift of Life Impact Award at the Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s inaugural One Huge Night Gala in Los Angeles. Read the article.
October 2018: In big forum, patient meets bone marrow donor one year after transplant
by Briana Pastorino
Ten-year-old Seth Akins last year got the miracle he and his family had been praying for — a lifesaving bone marrow transplant at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. A year later, on Sunday, Sept 23, 2018, the next best thing happened — Akins had the privilege of thanking his donor in person. The emotional introduction occurred during halftime at the LA Galaxy soccer game at Stub Hub Center in Carson, CA, and was made possible by the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Read the article.
September 2018: Gift of Life Bone Marrow Donor Meets Man He Saved
Four years ago, Akiva Rodin joined the Gift of Life Marrow Registry at the urging of his older brother. A family friend was battling cancer and everyone was encouraged to submit a swab. “I didn’t even know so much what it was,” explains an unassuming Akiva, 25. “OK, they told me to swab my check. OK! No problem!” Meanwhile, pharmacist Howard Schlensky had a loving family, a great life– when chronic lymphocytic leukemia threatened to take it all from him. Read the article and view the video.
September 2018: Jewish ‘Gift Of Life’ Bone Marrow Donor Meets Man Whose Life He Saved
It’s the life-saving gift that both recipient and donor get to celebrate thanks in part to the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Thousands of lives have been saved– and now Howard Shlensky’s is another. “When I got that phone call, I was already sitting down on the couch,” recalls Schlensky. “They told me I had possibly two perfect matches. You talk about a grown man crying… what a moment.” From facing terminal cancer to getting a second chance, all because a stranger joined the bone marrow registry, and donated when he learned he was a perfect match. Read the article and view the video.
September 2018: LA Galaxy help Kick Childhood Cancer with Gift of Life partnership
September 2018: ‘Gift Of Life’ Bone Marrow Donor Meets Man He Saved
by Robbie Owens
So what do you say to the stranger, who donated the stem cells, that saved your life? “Akiva, oh my God. Thank you,” breaths an emotional Schlensky. “Thank you, thank you. So good to meet you. Really. Thank you.” Four years ago, Akiva Rodin joined the Gift of Life Marrow Registry at the urging of his older brother. A family friend was battling cancer and everyone was encouraged to submit a swab. Read the article and view video.
September 2018: Local bone marrow drive ends successfully
by Laura Fowler Paulus
When a former Hillsboro resident was diagnosed with leukemia, many wanted to help but weren’t sure how. But now, thanks to some brainstorming and the Gift of Life organization, the residents of Marion County had a chance to help. Corey Burton, a 47 year old man who now lives in Ellis with his wife and two children, was well known in the Hillsboro area from his time here. Burton’s normal life was suddenly interrupted this summer when he received a life changing diagnosis. While his cancer is currently in remission, he will need to undergo a bone marrow transplant to increase the chances of keeping the cancer in remission. Read the article.
September 2018: Hillsboro family inspires bone marrow drive
by Laura Fowler Paulus
When a former Hillsboro resident was diagnosed with leukemia, many wanted to help but weren’t sure how. But now, thanks to some brainstorming and the Gift of Life organization, the residents of Marion County have a chance to see if they can help. Read the article.
September 2018: WeWork to open Manhattan collaboration space for cancer research
by Jonathan Lamantia
WeWork is teaming up with the Biden Cancer Initiative to offer space where cancer researchers, patients and oncology companies can work and collaborate in major U.S. cities, including New York...The Manhattan hub will open Oct. 1 at WeWork's 750 Lexington Ave. location. Koios Medical, a health care startup, has signed on as a tenant, along with the Suzanne Wright Foundation and the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Read the article.
September 2018: #PeopleAreGood – World Marrow Donor Day
September 15 is World Marrow Donor Day which helps raise awareness about being a stem cell donor and the impact of blood stem cell transplants. With help from one life-changing swab, the Gift of Life Marrow Registry can help people battling blood cancer get a second chance at life with a match. View video coverage.
September 2018: LA Galaxy to “Go Gold” in September in support of MLS’ 5th annual Kick Childhood Cancer campaign
LA Galaxy has announced their support for MLS WORKS, Major League Soccer’s community outreach initiative, in their 5th annual Kick Childhood Cancer campaign benefitting Children’s Oncology Group. In partnership with Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry, the LA Galaxy Foundation will co-host a Kick Blood Cancer event at The Americana shopping destination in effort to swab guests in order to save a life of someone battling blood cancer nationally. Visit the page.
September 2018: Miami Marlins honor three Gift of Life Marrow Registry donors
by Zach Wallens
The Miami Marlins recently honored three Gift of Life Marrow Registry donors who reside in South Florida for their heroics in helping to save people with blood cancer and other diseases.
At the game between the Marlins and Atlanta Braves, the team held a special pregame on-field ceremony to publicly recognize and thank Matthew Hocherman of Boca Raton, Jessica Donner of Weston, and Ari Ciment of Miami. Gift of Life also conducted a donor recruitment drive, asking people to do a simple cheek swab to join the registry. Read the article.
August 2018: Volunteers Host Bone Marrow Drive
Cancer is a random killer. It can strike any one of us at any time. A dedicated group of volunteers led by Gail Oliver of Newburgh, and Lorraine Wernow of Marlboro, are continuing to host a series of drives to register potential bone marrow and stem cell donors to benefit patients suffering from diseases like leukemia and lymphoma who are in need of transplants. Read the article.
August 2018: Troy man receives bone marrow donation
by Joe Berkofsky
In a deeply emotional meeting earlier this month, a Michigan man who was battling blood cancer not long ago finally learned the identity of the Atlanta man who saved his life with a bone marrow donation through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Bernard Weiner, 70, of Troy and Judah Berger, 22, of Atlanta, met for the first time at the Gift of Life Campus Ambassador Symposium at the Boca Raton Marriott. Weiner had received a bone marrow transplant from Berger after a search of Gift of Life’s registry showed they were a match. Read the article.
August 2018: Changing Lives, Saving Lives
by Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow
Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is celebrating a special chai benchmark – the 18th bone marrow transplant found and facilitated by the Gift of Life Marrow Registry from a member of the FJC Gift of Life donor circle. Through our partnership to grow the donor registry, one quick and painless act- swabbing your cheek to enter a public bone marrow and blood stem cell registry- can result in a match and a transplant for a child or adult suffering from a life-threatening illness. Read the article.
August 2018: Troy bone marrow recipient meets his match, pays it forward
by Terry Oparka
Longtime Troy resident Bernard Weiner stopped his workout at the Troy Community Center to share his story with reporters over the phone and in person. “I want to get the word out,” he said with a shrug. Weiner, 70, ... was diagnosed with myelodysplastic disorder, a blood cancer, after doctors at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute had been monitoring his blood platelet count for about 12 years prior because they had been found it to be abnormal. Weiner needed a bone marrow transplant. He was entered into the Gift of Life Marrow Registry. Read the article.
August 2018: Gift of Life: Atlanta man meets man he saved with bone marrow donation
by Liza Lucas
August 2018: Troy man meets life-saving bone marrow donor
by Nolan Ryan
Bernard Weiner battled a blood cancer for 12 years but by then, the disease had progressed to the point that only one treatment option was left: He needed a bone marrow transplant to stay alive. Weiner, 70, of Troy got the life-saving treatment for myelodysplastic disorder in March 2017, after the Gift of Life's bone marrow registry matched him with a compatible donor. Read the story.
August 2018: Meeting their match: How strangers nearly 50 years apart are now connected
by Andrew Lofholm
July 2018: Gift of Life to move HQ to new Boca penthouse
by Lisa J. Juriash
The Gift of Life Marrow Registry, the international bone marrow registry that helps patients suffering from blood cancer, is relocating its headquarters within Boca Raton. The move in early 2019 will create about 20 new jobs, according to a company spokeswoman. Gift of Life has leased the 17,465 square-foot penthouse Sabre Centre I, at 5901 Broken Sound Parkway, which is within The Park at Broken Sound. Its headquarters is currently located at 800 Yamato Road. The 102,351-square-foot, six-story Sabre Centre I office building is a Grover Corlew property on six acres with scenic views of Broken Sound Golf Course. Read the article.
July 2018: The Power of Two
by Susan Lassetter
When Hannibal Brooks looks back on 2017, it all comes down to two: two months, two minutes, two weeks, two days, two life-changing experiences. It started in the spring at Mississippi State, when Hannibal and his twin Malcolm swabbed their cheeks as part of a campus-wide event for National Bone Marrow Registry Day [correction: World Marrow Donor Day]. Just two months later, he received the call that he had matched with an anonymous patient. Malcolm got the same message, about the same patient, two minutes later. Two weeks passed and the pair headed to New Jersey for a battery of tests to finalize the match. Though the identical twins have the same marrow type, it ultimately was Hannibal who got the nod. Read the article.
July 2018: Austinite meets woman whose life he saved with bone marrow transplant
by Christian Flores
When you hear Traci Pruitt and Tom Koerner talk about this past weekend, you would have thought they are family members or close friends catching up. But they were complete strangers until Saturday. Pruitt and Koerner met for the first time this weekend in Los Angeles, after Koerner donated his bone marrow to Pruitt in 2013 - five years ago. "Hug him and hug him and hug him, just so thankful for him that he did that for me. He saved my life," Pruitt said. Read the article.
July 2018: Austin bone marrow donor meets woman whose life he saved
by Kalyn Norwood
An Austin bone marrow donor met his bone marrow recipient after five years. Tom Koerner from Austin met Traci Pruitt at a conference in Los Angeles over the weekend. “The Gift of Life said, 'Would you be up for possibly meeting your recipient this weekend,' and, yeah, if she's up for it I'm up for it,” said Koerner. Five years ago, he found out he was a bone marrow match for Pruitt after doing a swab test in college. Read the article and watch video coverage.
July 2018: Blood cancer donations: ‘I am literally giving the gift of life’
by Chelsea Todaro
In his late twenties, Matthew Hocherman knew nothing about blood cancer donations when Gift of Life, a blood cancer donation registry, hosted a drive at his Boca Raton Jewish community center in 2012 to help a member’s relative. On a whim, Hocherman swabbed his cheek — thinking nothing of it. But that swab ended up saving a life. Donating for blood cancer isn’t as simple as giving blood. It takes a commitment, but one that Hocherman says is worth it. Read the article.
July 2018: Upstate woman meets stranger who saved her life after diagnosed with cancer
by Brennan McDavid
A woman met her donor five years after receiving a bone marrow transplant. Traci Pruitt was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012. Doctors told her she needed to start treatment immediately. Her treatment included six rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Pruitt was an only child, so her hope resided in the bone marrow registry. "You worry. You wonder if you're going to find anybody," she said. Pruitt matched with someone a month later. The mother of two from Ninety Six connected with a young man in Austin, Texas. Read the article.
July 2018: Woman who battled potentially fatal leukemia introduced to man who helped save her life at convention in L.A.
by Mark Mester
A 47-year-old woman who was diagnosed with the potentially fatal blood cancer leukemia was introduced to the 30-year-old man who helped save her life on Saturday in Los Angeles. Traci Pruitt, of Ninety Six, South Carolina was recipient and Tom Koerner, of Austin, Texas, was the donor. They hugged on Saturday after meeting for the first time through the Gift of Life Marrow Registry on Saturday at the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity International Convention. Read the article and watch video coverage.
July 2018: FHMC Co-Hosts Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Registry Event
by Joann Ariola
On June 26th, 2018, Flushing Hospital Medical Center (FHMC) collaborated with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry on hosting a Bone Marrow/Stem Cell “Swabbing” event in the hospital’s main lobby. The event was held to benefit Carolyn Inzirillo and all those waiting for a life-saving match. Tracey Kavanagh, RN, Department of Surgery, at FHMC was instrumental in organizing the day. Read the article.
July 2018: South Orange Leukemia Patient Immediately Seeks Donor
by Molly Glick
In a recently-launched national campaign, South Orange resident Merlo Weiss seeks a stem cell or bone marrow donor. Doctors recently diagnosed the 45-year-old with an aggressive form of bone marrow cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to updates on the Gift of Life website. Chilean, Latino or Hispanic donors are encouraged, because a shared ancestry can determine a match. No matching donor currently exists in the Weiss’ family nor the worldwide registry. Read the article.
July 2018: Franklin man donates stem cells to Canadian woman battling cancer
by Jacob Dawson
For Christopher Read, being an organ donor is a no-brainer. Two decades ago, when Read’s son was only 3, he was diagnosed with diabetes. At the time, Read was not a registered organ donor in New Hampshire, but his son’s diagnosis changed everything. “If something happens to me and someone can use my organs, well, you know what, they can have them,” he said. Then, in 2012, Read and his wife were at a camper show in Milford where they encountered a booth for the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a nationally acclaimed nonprofit seeking to partner individuals battling blood cancers and disorders with a donor who could save their life. Read the article.
July 2018: Survivor meets man who saved her life
by P.J. Wilson
It was “a surreal experience” to meet the man who saved her life, Amanda Adams says. Last week, Adams got the chance to meet Chris Read, a New Hampshire resident, who changed her life. But she had already had a part of him for going on two years. Adams, a librarian at the North Bay Courthouse, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2010, shortly after graduating from a library sciences program. Read the article.
July 2018: WBAL-TV NBC interview with Gift of Life marrow donor Ari Goldstein
June 2018: Blood ties: Two strangers linked through a stem cell donation meet for the first time
by Joanne Laucius
For a leukemia patient hoping to find a stem cell match from a stranger, finding that match can be like winning the lottery. But the same is also true of the donor who gets a phone call that they have something desperately needed by another person somewhere in a wide, wide world. In 2016, a woman with leukemia was infused with stem cells from a man at The Ottawa Hospital. The pair had been matched through a network of donor registries that spans the globe. The recipient and donor knew nothing about each other, not even the country where the other lived. On Wednesday, recipient Amanda Adams, a 40-year-old librarian from North Bay, and donor Chris Read, a 55-year-old senior project manager from Franklin, New Hampshire, met each other for the first time in New York City. When Read donated his stem cells, the only thing he knew about Adams was her age and gender. He learned in December 2016 that the donation was successful. “I lost it. I couldn’t even speak,” he said this week. “It was a great feeling.” Read the article.
June 2018: HELP: Time Running Out For Hackensack Dad Seeking Bone Marrow Donor
by Cecelia Levine
A stay-at-home father to a nine-year-old son, Merlo Weiss, 45, is fighting acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He is searching for a Hispanic donor because matches are associated with ancestry. To help his mission, his husband David has teamed up with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry and they are conducting an urgent national search for Merlo’s donor. More than 190 donors have enlisted and over $11,000 have been raised, but time is running out. Read the article.
June 2018: Young Jewish Professionals Honor CBRE Global Brokerage Chairman Stephen Siegel
The Annual Young Jewish Professionals Gala brought together over 1,000 leading real estate principals, investors, and YJP members to the Cipriani Wall Street on June 19th. Steve Siegel, Global Chairman of Brokerage at CBRE, who has been involved with the Young Jewish Professionals since its inception, was honored with the YJP Founders Award ... In tone with the theme of “Giving Back” Steve Siegel gave immediate call to action, encouraging each guest to swab at the gala for the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, the same organization which saved his wife, Wendy Siegel, and countless others. Read the article.
June 2018: SF Hillel staffer saves a life with bone marrow match
by Maya Mirsky
Emily Simons wanted to save a life — but she never thought it would happen. The 24-year-old San Francisco Hillel staffer had signed up for the bone marrow and stem cell donor registry through the Gift of Life organization while she was in college a few years back, but finding out she was a match was a stunner. “I was really shocked when I got the call,” she said. “I never thought that I would be a match for anyone.” The life she saved belongs to 58-year-old David Gaiser. “The whole thing has been kind of surreal,” said Gaiser, who finally met Simons in San Francisco two months ago. Read the article.
June 2018: Together For A Cure: Making A Difference at ASCO 2018
by Kayt Leonard
Among the hundreds of other organizations exhibiting at ASCO, the PSI team was able to take part in the event and meet folks from around the world to discuss clinical research and oncology advancements ... we were able to partner with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry to help raise awareness, and do our part to put an end to bone cancer. Blood cancer affects more than 360 people across the world every single day. Through the work of Gift of Life, and so many other marrow registry programs, people are able to join the marrow registry and potentially be matched as donors to save lives. Literally – 15,070 people have been matched with donors through this organization alone. Read the article.
June 2018: Battle of the Bars brings bar associations together for charity and networking
by Rob Abruzzese
The young lawyer sections of the various bar associations in Brooklyn and New York City have continued a recent tradition last week — an annual "Battle of the Bars" — which took place at Emmett O'Lunney's in Manhattan on Tuesday, June 12. It was the third year in a row that the event was hosted. This year it partnered with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, to raise money and to help find potential donors. Read the article.
June 2018: South Orange Father, Husband Needs Marrow Donor, Family Says
by Eric Kiefer
Merlo Weiss of South Orange was a successful corporate event producer. But when he got a chance to become a stay-at-home dad to a 9-year-old son, Weiss and his husband, David, looked forward to a bright future filled with happy memories. Now, the Weisses are asking for help safeguarding that dream. The family recently put out a call for a donor who can provide a lifesaving stem cell/bone marrow transplant after Weiss, 45, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Because matches are associated with ancestry, Weiss, a native Chilean who moved to New Jersey, is in particular need of a Hispanic donor. Read the article.
June 2018: Richmond woman who received lifesaving marrow meets donor at Maryland basketball tournament
A few weeks after her search began, a Virginia woman diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was matched with her lifesaving donor through Gift of Life Marrow Registry. On April 19th, the two were introduced for the first time at the Annual Hillel Basketball Tournament hosted by the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Gift of Life is a non-profit bone marrow registry that facilitates marrow and blood stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood-related diseases. Read the article.
June 2018: Scout aims to fight blood, bone marrow cancer
by Casey White
A local Boy Scout has taken on a service project he hopes could save lives. Dylan Mistretta, 14, is working toward becoming an Eagle Scout with Belwood Troop #413 with a bone marrow drive called “Give a Swab, Save a Life.” The Burns Middle School student has been hosting bone marrow drives around the county for several months, informing the community about marrow donation and doing swab kits to find potential donors. Thus far, he has added 86 potential donors to the Gift of Life bone marrow registry and has raised $898 for the Gift of Life. Read the article.
June 2018: Meet Jay Feinberg of Gift of Life Marrow Registry in Boca Raton
Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Gift of Life is an international public bone marrow and blood stem cell registry. When he was diagnosed with leukemia, Jay was told he would need a bone marrow transplant to survive. He had no idea that his personal journey would result in the establishment of a grassroots organization— Gift of Life. But that’s precisely what happened. Read the full article.
June 2018: Meet Joe Baldelomar of Gift of Life Marrow Registry in Boca Raton
At Gift of Life, we believe every person battling blood cancer deserves a second chance at life. I specialize in educating our communities and all of those interested in learning about what a difference someone can make by a simple cheek swab. Read the full article.
June 2018: Leukemia Survivor Meets Donor
An extraordinary encounter occurred at Citi Field before the Mets battled the Braves on Tuesday, May 1 when New York resident and leukemia survivor JoAnn Cotter met her lifesaving stem cell donor Bronxite Michael Broker for the first time. Read the article.
May 2018: Bruriah’s ‘Swab for Life’ Helps Save Lives
Bruriah senior Chana Rutner organized this year’s Gift of Life swabbing drive. According to Ellen Azizollahoff, faculty adviser for this drive, “This was our most successful drive yet. Amazingly, three matches have been found from our drives, since we started running them in 2011.” Read the full article.
May 2018: Upper School Students Learn About Gift of Life Marrow Registry
by Rabbi Yigal Sklarin
As the 12th Grade Dean at Ramaz Upper School in New York City, I had the privilege on April 24, 2018 of leading a Gift of Life Marrow Registry Senior Swab presentation to the 11th and 12th grade students to explain the miracle of bone marrow transplants and how they can cure many blood cancers. I explained that I know about transplants from experience because I am a member of Gift of Life’s registry, was found as a match twice, and have been a two-time stem cell donor. Joining the registry is easy – just swab the inside of your cheek and fill out a questionnaire. Read the full article.
May 2018: Gift of Life Marrow Registry Helps California Dad with Leukemia
by Carolina Henriques
The nonprofit Gift of Life Marrow Registry recently helped a California father of three get a second chance at life, after matching a donor nearly 3,000 miles away in New Jersey. David Llodra, 51, of Sonoma, California, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in October 2016. After an unsuccessful search for bone-marrow matching donors within close family circles, Llodra turned to the Gift of Life registry. Read the full article.
May 2018: SAR HS Holds Bone Marrow Registry Drive
On Tuesday, April 11 SAR HS hosted “The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry” drive during advisory for juniors and seniors. Dr. Yardaena Osband addressed the students, explaining how the process works, the potential life-saving possibilities and why her family is committed to this amazing cause. Read the full article.
April 2018: Man Meets Donor Who Saved His Life at 5K in Brighton
by Kaitlin McKinley Becker
April 2018: Kingwood boy diagnosed with Leukemia healthy today thanks to Boston woman
April 2018: When Birthright Can Be A Life-Saving Trip
by Michelle Chabin
For the past 14 years, the Florida-based nonprofit Gift of Life has offered presentations to Birthright’s North American participants about the importance of becoming a potential bone marrow or stem cell donor and the opportunity to enter its registry ... At a recent Gift of Life fundraising event in Jerusalem, 2014 Birthrighter Zoe Miller, who was swabbed during her trip, met for the first time with the Miami cancer patient whose life she saved. Read the full article.
March 2018: My Birthright Israel trip was life changing – and not just for me
by Alec Burkin
My story began as a typical millennial from Boston, a reform Jewish-American – devoid of any substantive connection to Israel. My Jewish identity was formed through a combination of summer camp, Sunday school and overly lavish bar/bat-mitzvahs. I visited Israel for the first time as a Birthright-Israel participant in 2011, when I was eighteen years old. Read the full story of how Alec became a marrow donor and saved the life of a 61-year-old woman.
March 2018: Gift of Life's Community Engagement Coordinator Krissy Kelly and volunteer Quint Finney speak with Byron Barnett on "Urban Update"
March 2018: Graduate finds donor for transplant
by Jonathan Greenberg
Most college students don’t think about the possibility of having a life threatening disease while attending classes or hanging with friends. 2011 graduate Sarah Anders was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia in September 2015. But in the spring of 2016, after a year of failed immunotherapy in Maryland, Anders got a match with 25-year-old Brett Augenstein. Read the full article.
March 2018: A central Wisconsin man receives another chance at life
by Victoria Saha
A central Wisconsin man finally met the Texas man who saved his life. "I was told that I had 50 percent chance of survival," Paul Katz of Stevens Point said. In June 2016, The 62-year-old was diagnosed with Acute Lymphomatic Leukemia. Through 'Gift of Life,' a bone marrow and stem cell registry, Katz was match with a donor named Evan Smith. View the video.
March 2018: Birthright Israel Participants Give Over 200 'Gifts of Life'
by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Of the more than 53,000 participants in Birthright Israel who have given tissue samples from cells in their mouths for testing to see if they can be bone marrow donors, 1,543 matches were made and 205 of them have saved others’ lives. The tissue samples were taken by Gift of Life, an international public bone-marrow and blood stem cell registry that has for 25 years facilitated bone marrow transplants for children and adults suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and other potentially fatal diseases. Read the full article.
February 2018: Just don’t call it a roast: CRE elite gather to honor Stephen Siegel
by Hiten Samtani
Is there a correlation between one’s ability to close monster deals and their ability to laugh at their own expense? Stephen Siegel might be the guy to ask. On Wednesday night, the leasing titan was the subject of some good-natured, zany and occasionally ribald humor from a half-dozen of his “best friends” in commercial real estate, in a benefit event organized by The Real Deal to support the Gift of Life [Marrow Registry] foundation. Read the full article.
February 2018: Livingston Native Donates Stem Cells to Save Florida Mother’s Life
by Danielle Santola
A 22-year-old Livingston native who donated stem cells to an anonymous Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patient said the procedure was worth it when she had the opportunity to meet the recipient, a 40-year-old South Florida mother, at the Gift of Life 5K recently held at South County Regional Park in Boca Raton, Fla. Read the full article.
February 2018: Jews You Should Know Podcast Episode 023 - The Gift of Life Founder: A Conversation with Jay Feinberg (and his donor Becky Keller)
The entire podcast series is available for download via iTunes.
February 2018: Student Zoe Miller gives life-saving stem cell donation
by Sanjali De Silva
Graduate student Zoe Miller swabbed her mouth with a Q-tip in the summer of 2014, not knowing that one day it would change lives. Miller went on a Birthright trip to Israel where everyone in her group swabbed a Q-tip that put them in the Gift of Life Marrow Registry as potential stem cell and bone marrow donors. Two years later, Miller got a call saying she was a potential match for stem cell donation. Read the full article.
January 2018: Honoring Daniela Moffson's legacy through act of Chesed
by Daniella J. Greenbaum
More than 400 people, old and young, gathered together at the Ramaz Middle School for a chessed fair, held to commemorate the second yartzeit of Daniella Nechama Moffson, ז׳׳ל. Daniella dreamed of being a doctor. Today, at the chessed fair, her friends made 45 blood donations. I’m told that translates into 135 saved lives. That wasn’t all. Around 200 toys were collected and donated for sick kids through Ohel’s program. More than 200 birthday cards were written to children in Emunah’s shelters and homes. 200 people were swabbed and entered into the Gift of Life bone marrow registry. Read the full article.
January 2018: Cori Sudderth cherishes the Gift of Life she was given by complete stranger
by Celeste Turner
During the holiday gift-giving season, one Metairie woman diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia received the ultimate present, a lifesaving donor. After an international search of the bone marrow registry by the Gift of Life organization, Cori Sudderth, 49, was matched with a 23-year-old New York resident, Jonathan Grossman, that changed her life. "How do you thank somebody that saved your life? There are no words for me to express how grateful I am," said Sudderth, who had been diagnosed in December 2015. Read the full article.
January 2018: The Path to Pre-Med
by Vanessa Beeson
For Laurel native, Bradley Welch, the path to pre-med at Mississippi State began much earlier than most. Welch is a biochemistry major in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences ... Welch is also Mississippi State’s Gift of Life Marrow Registry Campus Ambassador since fall 2016. To date, his team has swabbed 1,168 people and facilitated five matches and one transplant. The transplant was for a fourteen-year-old girl with leukemia. “The reason I got involved with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry was because it was a way to make an individual difference now,” Welch said. “I didn’t want to wait until I got out of medical school to start saving lives.” Read the full article.
2017
December 2017: It's Better to Give – Campus Ambssadors recruit young donors
by Licia Avelar
When Boca Raton resident Jay Feinberg was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991, someone suggested that he make a bucket list. Instead, he and his family went to work recruitng more than 60,000 people to test for possible bone marrow matches. Four years later they found a match, and Feinberg received a transplant. "He subsequently started Gift of Life Marrow Registry," says Marti Freund, director of community engagement for the Boca Raton nonprofit. Read the full article.
December 2017: Marrow donor and recipient will meet at Steps for Life
A Miami woman diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma will meet the marrow donor who saved her life at the annual Steps for Life 5K Run and Walk at Sunset Cove in South County Regional Park. The Gift of Life Marrow Registry event takes place on Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 7:30 a.m. "After so many lows, I felt hope on the day of my transplant that someday I'd be well again and given a second chance," said the marrow recipient. Read the full article.
November 2017: East Brunswick stem cell donor meets woman whose life he saved
by Debra Rubin
It’s been a productive year for Harvey Pava, a 27-year-old resident of East Brunswick: He created one life, and saved another. Six months ago he became a father when his son, Oliver, was born and on Oct. 29 he met the 42-year-old Long Island woman whose life he saved by donating his stem cells. "I try to make each year bigger and better than the one before,” said Pava in a phone interview with NJJN, although he readily acknowledged it would be hard to top 2017. Read the full article.
November 2017: East Brunswick Gift of Life giver meets recipient
by Cheryl Makin
There are many things in life to be thankful for. For Harvey Pava, one of these is that a friend was manning a Gift of Life Marrow Registry booth when he was a freshman in college. It gave him the opportunity to save a life. In order to raise public consciousness of the nearly 10,000 U.S. patients who are waiting for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant, November is recognized as National Marrow Awareness Month. After an international search of the bone marrow registry, Pava, 27, a township resident, was able to make a stem cell donation to Florence Ivy, 42, of Mastic Beach, New York. Read the full article.
November 2017: UF student meets man who received his bone marrow
by Jessica Giles
When Michael Cizek had his cheek swabbed outside Library West in November 2015, he didn’t think anything of it. “I didn’t really know what I was signing up for,” the 22-year-old said. “I didn’t think I’d ever get a phone call.” But about six months after joining the bone marrow registry that day on campus, he did receive a phone call. He was a match. After some further blood testing on the 10 necessary chromosomes to identify a match, the UF marketing senior traveled to Washington, D.C., in June 2016 to donate bone marrow to a man he’d never met. Read the full article.
November 2017: A Renewal of Incredible Proportions
by Nina Glick
We grew up in the fledgling years of Jay Feinberg’s publicly sharing with the Jewish world his need for a bone marrow transplant. We believe that he opened up the minds of many to the enormous success that bone marrow transplants can be in the lives of seriously ill individuals. We are especially proud of the fact that our son Akiva was a donor to a child, donating both his marrow and later his stem cells. While he never met his recipient, he has the zechut of knowing that he actually saved someone’s life. How many of us can be blessed with such a feeling? Read the full story.
November 2017: Man meets bone marrow donor who saved his life
WCJB 20 ABC-TV coverage of the first meeting between bone marrow donor Michael Cizek and transplant recipient Jeffrey Turner at University of Florida's Flavet Field at the X Ambassador's concert on November 9, 2017.
November 2017: Gift of Life’s new app to save lives of cancer patients
by Faran Fagan
A new technology is helping donors hoping to save cancer patients. Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a national nonprofit public bone marrow and blood stem cell registry based in Boca Raton, recently launched a smartphone app to help streamline the donor registration process. “Our team worked tirelessly to create an app that makes it that much easier to save a life and put that power in the palm of peoples’ hands,” said Gift of Life founder and CEO Jay Feinberg, of Delray Beach. Read the full story.
October 2017: Bone Marrow Donor and Recipient Meet for the First Time
NY1 coverage of the first meeting between bone marrow donor Harvey Pava and transplant recipient Florence Ivy at Gift of Life's Steps for Life 5k at Brookfield Place in New York City on October 29, 2017.
October 2017: Steps for Live 5k Live Shot
NY1 Spectrum News live coverage of Gift of Life Marrow Registry Steps for Life 5k, featuring interview with CEO Jay Feinberg.
October 2017: The stranger who saved my son's life
BBC Radio4 broadcast an interview with Jenny Kemp, mother of marrow transplant recipient Rory Kemp who recently met his Gift of Life donor, Christopher Mattson. All three share their stories during this heartwarming conversation.
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October 2017: Blood cancer schoolboy flies to US to meet transplant stranger who gave him gift of life
by Sarah Vesty
Teenager Rory Kemp and his family came face to face with Christopher Mattson in New York and thanked him for stepping forward as a vital stem cell donor. Rory, of Edinburgh, was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer – acute myeloid leukaemia – in February 2014. Christopher, who had signed up to the Gift of Life stem cell register in America on a whim, was found to be a match. Rory had the transplant at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow just days before Christmas 2014. Read the full story.
October 2017: Bone marrow registry drive appreciated
by Vivian (Nolan) Folensbee, transplant recipient
Cheers to the recent [Gift of Life] bone marrow registry drive held at SUNY Oneonta. I was very fortunate to receive the gift of life (stem cells) from a registered donor who had responded to a drive like this. A simple swab of his mouth put his DNA in the registry files. Months later, I was praying that Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston would find a perfect match for me. Thank God, it did. I received the cells in October 2015 and have been doing great since. A transplant from a donor was needed for my survival. To read the full story, click here.
October 2017: Inside South Florida — Gift of Life Marrow Registry
Inside South Florida interviews Gift of Life Marrow Registry Director of Community Engagement Marti Freund.
September 2017: Palm Beach Gardens man dies of cancer after failing to find donor
The dearth of Hispanic bone marrow donors cost a Palm Beach Gardens man his life after a six-month fight with cancer. Manny Valdes, a 42-year-old husband and father of two, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in February. The Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a national non-profit organization based in Boca Raton, has been alerting the public to the donor crisis for Hispanics. It operates a public registry dedicated to curing blood cancer through marrow and stem cell donation. And though the registry appealed nationwide to increase Hispanic representation in the donor pool, Valdes died on Aug. 22 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Ohio. To read the full story, click here.
September 2017: Marrow Donor and Recipient Meet on NY1 Broadcast
September 2017: A Message in a Bone
by Gary Stromberg
I was walking down a crowded street in Santa Monica, California one a brisk afternoon, thinking about what I wanted for lunch when the text came in from my daughter. It was a copy of a message she had just received. It read: “Dear Emily, On Dec. 23, 2015, you volunteered to join the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry ... We are writing to share the good news that you are a match for a 69-year-old man suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). You can save his life..." To read the full story, click here.
September 2017: College students recruit peers to Join Boca-based Gift Of Life Registry
by Marisa Herman
More than 100 college students from 80 different campuses around the country converged in Boca Raton last month with one common goal—learning how they can sign up as many of their peers on a registry to donate bone marrow or stem cells to fight blood cancers and other illnesses. Gift of Lift, which began as a grassroots initiative in 1991, created its Campus Ambassadors Program, known as CAP, four years ago. To read the full article, click here.
June 2017: Pickleball tournament held to fight blood cancer
On March 30, Gift of Life Marrow Registry, headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., hosted its annual pickleball tournament at Boca West Country Club to benefit the organization. Funds raised by the tournament will be used to add new donors to the registry. To read the full article, click here.
June 2017: Living out Jewish Values in Every Way: A Life-Saving Mitzvah
by Carly Shapiro
It was Charles Bukowski, the American poet and novelist who once wrote, “You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time.” And that’s exactly what Ryan Woloshin, BBYO’s Eastern Region Regional Director, did last month when he became a Gift of Life donor. The Gift of Life program matches bone barrow and stem cell donors with recipients using cheek swabs and further blood testing once a potential match is made. To read the full article, click here.
June 2017: Healthcast: Hispanics needing bone marrow transplants
June 2017: Gift of Life chairman and bride choose marrow registry over wedding registry
Bill Begal, chairman of the board of Gift of Life Marrow Registry, and his bride, Kira Epstein, decided that in lieu of a wedding registry they would make the marrow registry the centerpiece of their wedding festivities. “My fiancé and I never wanted to receive gifts; we always wanted to do something amazing,” said Begal. “There is nothing more amazing than saving someone’s life. Each of us has the power within us to save someone with blood cancer, but the only way you’ll ever get that miraculous chance is by joining the registry so the transplant centers can find you.” To read the full article, click here.
May 2017: Want to save a life? Cuban American searches for bone marrow donor
by Brooke Henderson
It took the doctors five weeks to figure out what was wrong. The day after Halloween, Manny Valdes felt pain in his legs that wouldn’t go away. A series of tests showed the presence of a widespread cancer, lighting up his body like a Christmas tree, he said. Oncologist Dr. James Foran from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville couldn’t believe he was able to function. Valdes was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare, aggressive blood and bone marrow cancer. To read the article and watch the video, click here.
Jessica Abo dispels myths about marrow donation and explains the importance of joining Gift of Life Marrow Registry.
May 2017: Stranger saves life of woman with stem cell transplant
Eighty percent of blood cancer patients in need of stem cell or bone marrow transplant are not able to get one, in part because they can't find a match. But you can help change that and save a life by registering to be a donor. All it takes to get started is a simple cheek swab. In the video, see the story of a woman from Parker whose life was saved thanks to a complete stranger. To watch the video about Gift of Life recipient Paige, click here.
May 2017: Chattanooga Student Surprised to be a Gift of Life Donor
by Bill Mitchell
Most of us like to give gifts to others. Sometimes they’re small or sentimental—but they can be once in a lifetime events. At the top of the list is the “gift of life”, and a UTC student had the chance to do that. Paige McCoy had developed leukemia —some didn’t give her much hope. She needed a stem cell transplant and fortunately there was exactly one match in the world. And it was a donor in the Gift of Life registry. The donor in this case was a 22-year old student at UTC who registered two years ago in Knoxville two years ago, and promptly forgot all about it. Thomas Davis was surprised to get the call but he didn’t hesitate to go through with the stem cell transplant. To read the full article and watch the video, click here.
May 2017: Mets hosted Gift of Life reunion last night at Citi Field
by Joe McDonald
Before last night’s Met game against the Padres, the club – along with The Gift of Life – hosted a reunion of sorts in one of the suites at Citi Field. Stem cell transplant recipient Wendy Wax, met for the first time her donor Ruchail Prupis for the first time in the suites thanks to the Gift of Life. Wax, who resides in New Jersey, suffered from leukemia, but thanks to a transplant facilitated by Gift of Life Marrow Registry, she has rebuilt her life. Both Wax and Prupis, who were anonymous (even to each other) until the meeting, met for the first time last night.To read the full article, click here.
May 2017: Mets help Gift of Life facilitate special meeting
By Anthony DiComo
Wendy Wax knew her blood stem cell donor was a real person, but felt a need to confirm it. She felt desire to see the person who saved her life in flesh as well as blood. So when a Citi Field suite door opened Wednesday and Ruchail Feldman walked through, Wax reached out and grabbed her, hugged her, cried with her. "It's overwhelming," Wax said. "You feel this unbelievable connection to a perfect stranger." To read the full article and watch the video, click here.
Gift of Life Marrow Registry thanks the New York Mets for their ongoing support of our lifesaving mission.
May 2017: Leukemia Survivor Meets Stem Cell Donor Who Gave Her The Gift Of Life
by Samantha Liebman
It was an emotional moment when, after three years Wendy Wax met her stem cell donor in a suite at Citi Field. “We share things that nobody else could ever share. I’m like her little carbon copy walking around,” she told 1010 WINS’s Samantha Liebman. Wendy was diagnosed with leukemia in 2014, and said when the doctor told her, all she could think about was her 6-year-old daughter. “The more he explained, the more I didn’t understand because I was in shock, and I asked him to just cut to the chase and tell me what I had to do,” she said. To read the full article and watch the video, click here.
May 2017: NCAA-bound UIC softball pitcher driven to expand bone-marrow donor pool
by David Hough
On the morning of a game at Youngstown State earlier this season, Illinois-Chicago softball pitcher Karissa Frazier arrived armed for a successful road trip. Frazier packed enough kits to perform cheek swabs on Youngstown State players who had agreed to add their samples to a worldwide bone-marrow registry. So Frazier hopped on a bus to the ballpark by herself, gave a presentation on the #swab2save campaign in her role as UIC's campus ambassador for Gift of Life, and helped swab the young women she would try to strike out later in the series. To read the full article, click here.
May 2017: Manny Valdés, un Latino que necesita transplante de medula ósea
Gustavo Reyes
¿Sabía usted que el 55 por ciento de los pacientes hispanos de cáncer y el 75 por ciento de los pacientes multirraciales nunca son emparejados con los donantes que pueden salvar sus vidas? El sur de la Florida tiene más de 2,5 millones de hispanos y el Regalo de la Vida Marrow Registry está instando a la comunidad para ayudar a salvar vidas, incluyendo local de la Florida residente, Manny Valdés. Para leer el artículo completo, haga clic aquí.
May 2017: Joven hispano, padre de dos hijos, necesita donación para salvar su vida
by Isabel Olmos
La vida de Manny Valdés, un hombre de 42 años de edad de ascendencia cubana, felizmente casado y padre de dos hijos, está en manos fundamentalmente de la comunidad latina. Diagnosticado en febrero con leucemia mieloide aguda (LMA), una forma rara de cáncer de la sangre y médula ósea, a Valdés le resulta difícil encontrar un donante debido a su herencia hispanocubana. Valdés, que es de Miami, vive en Palm Beach Gardens desde hace ocho años, ha sido tratado en el hospital de la Clínica Mayo de Jacksonville. El tipo de tejido que requiere tiene carácter hereditario, de la misma forma que lo tiene el color de los ojos o del cabello. En este caso, la diversidad étnica y racial es crucial para encontrar las coincidencias requeridas para los trasplantes de médula ósea. Para leer el artículo completo, haga clic aquí.
May 2017: Lymphoma Survivor Meets Woman Who Saved His Life with Stem Cell Donation
by Joana Fernandes, PhD
Almost two years after Peter Levine received a stem cell donation to treat his non-Hodgkin T-cell lymphoma from a stranger, the Boston native had a chance to thank the donor — 24-year-old Cheryl Rosenberg — at the third annual Gift of Life Marrow Registry Steps for Life 5K run held in that city on April 30. The donation was made possible by the Gift of Life, a Florida-based nonprofit organization that allows people to register for bone marrow donation, and facilitates transplants of bone marrow and blood stem cells for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood-related diseases. To read the full article, click here.
April 2017: Want to save a life? Gardens man needs Hispanic bone marrow donor
The dearth of Hispanic bone marrow donors has a Palm Beach Gardens man with a rare blood cancer in the unenviable position of begging for someone who can save his life. Manny Valdes says if willing Hispanics donors could just get their mouths swabbed, then he can possibly find a bone marrow match. The test is free for the potential donor. The 42-year-old husband and father of two was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in February. It is a rare form of blood and bone marrow cancer. To read the full article, click here.
April 2017: Stem Cell Donor, Recipient Meet At Chestnut Hill 5K Race
A Bostonian who’s life was saved by a stem cell transplant met his donor for the first time at the Boston Steps for Life 5k Run and Walk in Chestnut Hill Sunday. Peter Levine, 67, was told he should look into a stem cell transplant after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin T-cell Lymphoma. The Gift of Life Marrow Registry matched him with 24-year-old Cheryl Rosenburg from New York. “I was hoping I was going to be able to meet her some day,” said Levine. “I am just so grateful that she gave up her stem cells to make me healthy today.” To watch the video, click here.
April 2017: Manny: the Fighter
by Maria Esther
Manny Valdes es un luchador. A warrior who takes on life with a positive attitude and an optimistic heart. A proud father of two. A die-hard Miami Hurricanes fan. A Cuban raised in Miami, he is 42 years old and currently on his second round of chemo. In February, Manny was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as Acute Myeloid Leukemia. A stem-cell transplant is Manny’s only chance for a cure. Manny has not yet been able to find a match for bone marrow. The problem is that there are not enough donors with Cuban background in the bone marrow registry. To read the full article, click here.
April 2017: Manuel Valdes: Palm Beach Gardens man battling leukemia
by WPTV Webteam
A Palm Beach Gardens man is battling leukemia and the only thing that can help Manuel Valdes is a bone marrow transplant. Valdes is Hispanic and it makes it more difficult to find a perfect match. "I keep things positive, honestly I'm a very positive person. I don't let those things bother me or dwell on me and stuff like that. I try to look forward as much as possible, so I'm different from most people," said Valdes. To view the video, click here.
April 2017: This couple’s wedding gift registry could help save a life
by Dani-Elle Dubé
It’s tradition in many weddings for guests to gift the bride or groom with a present for their home, or a cheque to help send them off on their new life. But when Bill Begal and his bride Kira said “I do” in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, they told their guests to hold off on the gravy boats and table vases. Instead, they asked them to sign up for a different registry – a bone marrow registry. “Not one wedding gift, nothing,” Begal told CBS New York. “Our wedding gift is the gift of life. Our wedding registry is a bone marrow registry. Make a contribution, enter your email, help make the world a better place.” To read the full story and listen to the broadcast, click here.
April 2017: Couple Swaps Wedding Registry For Bone Marrow Registry, Asks Guests To Become Donors
by Dr. Max Gomez
A young couple that recently got married had a very unusual gift request for their wedding guests. They didn’t want silverware or appliances. They asked instead for bone marrow. As CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez reports, they specifically asked people to become donors. From day one, Bill Begal knew his bride was a match. But the Institute for Justice says about 3,000 people die each year because they can’t find their match. So the couple traded its wedding gift registry for another. “Not one wedding gift, nothing. Our wedding gift is the gift of life. Our wedding registry is a bone marrow registry,” the groom said. “Make a contribution, enter your email, help make the world a better place.” To read the full story and watch the video, click here.
April 2017: Students spread positivity in community on Good Deeds Day
by Yelin Jung
More than 125 students spent their Sunday helping their local community, participating in Maryland Hillel’s Good Deeds Day April 2. In addition to enjoying the games, students could donate clothes, write a card for Syrian refugees and participate in a cheek swab. Cheek swabbing is a way to find matches for blood cancer patients who are looking for donors, Ben Bryer, a volunteer and sophomore community health major, said. Gift of Life, a marrow and blood stem cell registry, collects the DNA of every student who takes the cheek swab into its database to seek donors. To read the full article, click here.
April 2017: Will you marrow me?
by Stephanie Ramirez
Something lasting and forever: that’s the goal when a couple gets married. On Sunday, a D.C. bride and groom took that challenge one step further and cheek-to-cheek. Inside the Washington Hebrew Congregation, Bill (William) Begal stared at his wife with what looked like tears in his eyes. Since day one, Begal knew it was a match. Sadly, the Institute for Justice says about 3,000 people die each year because they can’t find their match. “My fiancé never wanted to receive gifts, we always wanted to do something amazing,” said Begal. So in lieu of wedding gifts, the couple asked for cheeks. They dedicated a table to the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry. To read the full article and watch the video, click here.
March 2017: Bone marrow basketball tournament comes to ECU Saturday
by Kayla Morton
East Carolina junior Cam Walker will hold a basketball tournament on ECU’s campus Saturday in order to work towards gaining numbers for the national registry list of bone marrow donors for patients in need of transplants. Walker is the student president of the ECU ambassador organization for The Gift of Life that is in its third year. There are approximately 100 students across the United States involved in this organization, whose main job is to inform communities across the US about the importance of bone marrow registry and how to get involved. To read the full article, click here.
March 2017: “Wild about finding a cure”: UDance raises $1.8 million
by Natalie Walton
This year’s UDance Dance Marathon, which was themed “wild about finding a cure,” raised $1,890,337.16, an increase of almost $200,000 from 2016... UDance also works closely with the Gift of Life organization. While at the event, attendees had the opportunity to sign up for the national bone marrow registry. Senior Katie Katz, the co-executive chair of UDance, brought Gift of Life to UDance last year through the Gift of Life Campus Ambassadors program. During UDance in 2016, over 700 students were added to the national registry. To read the full article, click here.
March 2017: Côte-St-Luc student marks bar mitzvah by helping to battle blood cancer
by John Meagher
Gavi Aspler’s bar mitzvah is still a few months away, but the 12 -year-old Côte-St-Luc resident plans to honour the event by raising awareness and funds for blood cancer treatments. Aspler, along with family and friends, will be hosting a donor drive on Saturday, March 11, which is Purim night, a Jewish holiday, at Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Congregation in Côte-St-Luc. Rachel Goodman, Aspler’s mother, said donors will not be asked to give blood Saturday, but rather allow their DNA to be collected through simple cheek swabs. To read the full article, click here.
March 2017: Enthusiastic Western Pennsylvania native gives the ‘Gift of Life’
by Toby Tabachnick
Emily Simons was not sure she wanted to hear the news she would be receiving last week, an update regarding the health status of a stranger, albeit one with whom she shares a very intimate connection. On Feb. 24, Simons got a call from Gift of Life, which works to match potential donors with those in need of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, with an update about the man to whom the West Allegheny native donated stem cells. “I am overwhelmed with relief and joy to announce my cells have graphed [sic] in my patient, and he has since been discharged from the hospital,” Simons wrote on her blog. “He is still in recovery and has a long journey before he is out of the dark, but there is hope.” To read the full article, click here.
February 2017: Will You Marrow Me? Students Encourage Bone Marrow Registration
by Kelly Grosfield
University of Florida ambassadors for The Gift of Life Marrow Registry are on campus in Turlington Plaza this week encouraging community members to join the bone marrow registry. The event “Will You Marrow Me?” is focused on finding marrow matches for those in need. “One of my really good friends gave his bone marrow to a patient a couple months ago and he said it was life changing,” said Meaghan Hanley, a UF student. “I think it’s just an amazing cause and I firmly believe what goes around comes around,” Hanley said. “So if I’m able to help someone out, I’m definitely going to.” To read the full article, click here.
February 2017: "Will you marrow me?" Gift of Life program offers help
by Abbie Ready
February 2017: BU Students look to save lives with bone marrow testing
by A.J. Bush
Students gathered across the Binghamton University campus reaching out to others to help find bone marrow donors on Wednesday. The three day "Mega Bone Marrow Drive" was organized by the students of Chabad at Binghamton, AEPI, SAE and TEP fraternities. Multiple testing locations could be found throughout the campus' many dining halls. To view a video of the event and read the full story, click here.
February 2017: Ky. man saves stranger's life with stem cell transplant
by Julia Rose
It's hard to believe that up until a few months ago, Eric Gurevich and Ron Dreben were total strangers. “I got to see him for the first time and I just gave him this big bear hug and he was crying and his wife was there and his 81-year-old mother was there,” Gurevich said. “Because he received those [stem cells], he was kind of given a new lease on life." Gurevich lives in Louisville. He donated his stem cells to Dreben who lives in Washington D.C. in 2014, one, quick decision that changed the lives of two people. Gurevich remembers the call from the organization Gift of Life like it was yesterday. To watch the video and read the full article, click here.
January 2017: My Journey with Gift of Life
by Peter Schottenfels
Birthright Israel was a life-changing experience for me. Years after my trip took place, the experience continues to have a profound impact on me. In October, I met Etty at a Birthright Israel conference in Tel Aviv, to whom I donated stem cells three years ago. Etty is an Israeli mother of three, lives in Tel Aviv and is both a doctor and a lawyer. She is brilliant, kind and vivacious. And as much as my donation was an antidote to her leukemia, her warmth and spirit surely contributed just as much to her battle with cancer. Here’s how this story begins: I was matched with Etty through a tremendous organization called Gift of Life. To read the full story, click here.
January 2017: Men meet in Boca Raton after one saved the other's life through a blood stem-cell donation
by Jaqueline Powell
A man got to meet the person who saved his life a year ago for the very first time in Boca Raton Sunday morning. Rich Little, 61, received a life-saving blood stem cell donation from 23-year-old Ethan Krafft when Little had just a few weeks left to live. Now, Little is in remission. The two men were brought together for the first time at the Steps for Life 5K, held at FAU'S stadium. The 5K is held every year to raise money for the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, which is headquartered in Boca Raton. To read the full article and watch the video, click here.
January 2017: Blood stem cell donor meets the man whose life he helped save
By Stephen Hobbs
Rch Little thought he might only have a few weeks to live. The Oregon resident wasn't improving despite regular chemotherapy treatments and instead was reliant on finding a perfect match to fight his blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome. "We knew early that that was the only cure," Little said. More than 2,000 miles away, at Ohio University, Ethan Krafft had his cheek swabbed [at a Gift of Life Marrow Registry donor drive] with a group of fellow business fraternity members for community service credit. A week later he found out he had a matching tissue type with Little, a man he didn't know but whose life he would soon help save. To read the full article and watch the video, click here.
January 2017: Bone marrow recipient meets man who saved his life
by Yaremi Farinas
In front of a large crowd at this year's Steps For Life 5k, 61-year-old Rich Little of Oregon embraced the stranger who saved his life. "This is an amazing feeling finally getting to meet Rich," said Ethan Krafft. While the two men are of different nationalities, generations apart and live in different states, they have at least one thing in common. After a bone marrow transplant, they now share the same blood type. To read the full article and view video, click here.
2016
December 2016: A look at 20 local people who helped make 2016 memorable
by Staff Writer
[Excerpt] 10. Carol Hatch
Fourteen years ago, Hatch joined a bone-marrow registry and nearly forgot she had until she received a call two years ago that she was a match. The Lunenburg resident did not hesitate to take the blood tests and quickly learned that she was not only a match, but she was the "perfect" match. That perfect match has saved a man's life and created a friendship between two people on opposite sides of the country. Hatch has developed a friendship with Andy Michaels, the man suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma whom she donated 500 million stem cells to in 2014. She donated 20 billion T-cells to Michaels in May. The two, who talk on the phone, Facebook and text messages, finally met this June at the Gift of Line Bone Marrow Foundation gala in New York City. To read the full article, click here.
December 2016: The gift of life
by Todd Glasscock
After they hugged, the first thing the 3 1/2-year-old boy did when he and the detective met was to show the detective his chemotherapy port. This November was the first time Charlie Osborn and Corey Hall had ever met. Charlie was the recipient of Hall’s bone marrow, which was needed to fight an inherited immune deficiency disorder. Just a little more than a year had passed since Hall, a detective with the Cleburne Police Department, donated his bone marrow anonymously for a family whose toddler son was diagnosed with Hyper IgM Syndrome, an inherited immune deficiency disorder that leaves those with the syndrome highly susceptible to severe illnesses and cancer. To read the full article, click here.
December 2016: Seeking ‘Hope4Adam,’ they found it
by Oren Peleg
When 31-year-old Adam Krief started chemotherapy this past summer for a rare form of blood cancer, he knew it wouldn’t save his life; it could only buy him time. In dire need of a bone marrow transplant, not a single person out of the 13 million people on the national bone marrow registry was a match. Without a transplant, the father of three’s diagnosis of primary myelofibrosis was a death sentence. “At the beginning, we felt so isolated,” his wife, Lia, recalled, speaking by phone at her husband’s bedside at City of Hope in Duarte. “We just had all those feelings of ‘Why is this happening to us?’” To read the full article, click here.
December 2016: Gift of Life, una muestra de su tejido bucal puede salvar una vida
by Wendy Rhodes
Cuando Robby Holroyd se enteró que pasaría seis horas conectado a una máquina que le sacaría la sangre de un brazo, la procesaría y se la inyectaría por el otro, se entusiasmó. “Me pareció que me había ganado la lotería”, dijo Holroyd, de 24 años y residente en Coral Springs. Mientras asistía a un maratón de baile en el 2011, Holroyd se sometió a una prueba de ADN administrada por Gift of Life, organización sin fines de lucro con sede en Boca Raton que opera un registro internacional de células madre de sangre y médula ósea que da a los pacientes de cáncer en la sangre una segunda oportunidad. Para leer el artículo completo, haga clic aquí.
November 2016: How a Penn junior is working to fight blood cancer through a new club
by Jacob Winick
For college junior Madeline Moore, the cure to blood cancer is just a few thousand cheek swabs away. Last year Moore learned about the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a 25-year-old nonprofit that fights blood cancer by creating a large tested donor database. This registry can be used by doctors when searching for potential bone marrow donors and by researchers working to find a cure. She signed up as Penn’s Campus Ambassador and began her work spreading awareness and getting cheek swabs for testing. To read the full article, click here.
November 2016: Israeli cancer patient meets her lifesaving US bone marrow donor
By Staff Writer
A former American participant of a Birthright trip this week met the Israeli woman suffering from cancer whose life he saved during his visit. Peter Schottenfeld visited Israel for the first time in 2007 on a Birthright educational tour. Along with many other participants, Schottenfeld gave a marrow sample to the bone marrow registry.Two years ago, the 30-year-old New Yorker was told by the US-based Gift of Life organization that his marrow was a match for 58-year-old leukemia patient Eti Brazilai from Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv. To read the full article, click here.
October 2016: A simple cheek swab may save a person's life
by Wendy Rhodes
When Robby Holroyd learned he was going to spend six hours tethered to a machine that would drain the blood out of one arm, process it, then return it to his body through the other arm, he was thrilled. “I felt like I won the lottery,” said the 24-year-old from Coral Springs. While attending a college dance marathon in 2011, Holroyd had his cheek swabbed at a booth run by Gift of Life — a non-profit, Boca Raton-based international bone marrow and blood stem cell registry dedicated to giving every person battling blood cancer a second chance at life. To read the full article, click here.
October 2016: SUNY students seek bone marrow donors
by Jessica Reynolds
A SUNY Oneonta graduate who started a successful on-campus bone marrow registry drive two years ago will return to Oneonta this week to help with the third installment of the event, organizers said Monday. Russell Lowe, 22, who spearheaded SUNY Oneonta's first registry event in 2014, now works as Community Engagement Coordinator for the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, an international foundation that sponsors the drives. To read the full article, click here.
October 2016: Swab Mob group helps to save lives in Saddle River
Middle school students at Saddle River Day School, located in Saddle River, partnered with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry to register volunteer marrow donors during the homecoming festivities. The "Swab Mob" worked under the direction of Gift of Life professionals and SRDS middle school faculty and staff volunteers. The event was inspired by Gift of Life Founder and CEO Jay Feinberg, who graduated from Saddle River Day School in 1986. To read the full article, click here.
October 2016: Teaneck Natives Serve as Gift of Life Campus Ambassadors
By Jennie Gans
It could be the plot of the next great Hollywood blockbuster. A young man from New Jersey is diagnosed with leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant to survive. He and his family exhaust every imaginable resource in an attempt to find his match. Since bone marrow matches often occur in those with similar ancestry and he is Jewish, the family conducted extensive genetic research, running drives internationally. Just as his family gave up, they had one last drive. The last person at the last drive turned out to be his match. To read the full article, click here.
September 2016: Effort to find bone marrow match for Jewish father with cancer goes viral
by Staff Writer
Adam Krief, a 31-year-old Israeli Jewish father of three of Los Angeles, is fighting for his life in a race to find a single bone marrow donor match as the only option to treat a rare form of blood cancer. The Krief family started a Facebook campaign called, Hope4Adam, urging people to register as a donor through Gift of Life Marrow Registry. To read the full article, click here.
September 2016: The Gift of a Lifetime
by Elizabeth Kratz
Adam Krief, a 31-year-old husband and father of three small children, with primary myelofibrosis, a type of leukemia, in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. The Jewish bone marrow registry Gift of Life, which numbers more than a quarter of a million people, has yet to find a match for Adam. There are 26 million people listed in the various combined international bone marrow registries in which Gift of Life partners, but the global donor pool needs to have ethnic and racial diversity for matches to be made. To read the full article, click here.
September 2016: The gift of life from Montville to Hollywood
by Lisa Kintish
As soon as Jon Kayne learned about the global bone marrow registry while on a Birthright trip to Israel in 2012, he knew he would sign up. He provided the organization, Gift of Life Marrow Registry, with a DNA sample retrieved from swabbing the inside of his cheek. "It’s simple. It takes a minute or two," said Kayne, 25, who now lives in San Francisco, working for a tech start-up firm. Kayne’s stem cells were sent to Los Angeles and given to a man who was near death. Kayne would later learn his identity: Steven Bochco, the Emmy-winning creator of such television series as "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "Doogie Howser, M.D." To read the full article, click here.
September 2016: Gift of Life Marrow Registry marks 25th anniversary saving lives
by Shelley Beneviste
Gift of Life Marrow Registry helps children and adults suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, other cancers and genetic disorders find matching donors for lifesaving blood and marrow transplants. In 2016, Gift of Life marked its 25th anniversary, and to celebrate, the organization adopted a bold new call to action. To read the full article, click here.
September 2016: Largest Q-tip breaks a record for World Marrow Donor Day
by Kristen Stephenson
A bid to drive volunteer bone marrow donors has resulted in a super-sized cotton wool bud setting a new world record for the Largest Q-tip. Having decided to achieve an incredibly large record to promote World Marrow Donor Day earlier this month, the Gift of Life Marrow Registry set out to create a huge Q-tip as the symbol for the cause as cotton wool buds are used to swab the inner cheek, which gathers cells of potential donors. to read the full article, click here.
September 2016: Students attempt to add diversity to donor registries
by Jace Bridges
On Monday, Gift of Life held their first donor drive of the year outside the William Pitt Union, where students completed an online survey, swabbed their own cheeks and sent their information to a lab to be officially entered into the Gift of Life donor registry. “We just want to find people who would likely be willing to donate if they got the life-saving call,” Alyssa Berman, Pitt’s Gift of Life president, said. Last year, the Gift of Life Club registered 892 people on Pitt’s campus. To read the full article, click here.
August 2016: The Mitzvah of Marrow Donation
By Leah Apothaker, Gift of Life Marrow Registry donor
In March of 2013, I volunteered to swab people’s cheeks for a bone marrow registry drive at a National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) conference. For a few hours, I sat behind a table and walked women through the easy steps of being swabbed. Near the end of my shift, I picked up a test kit and added myself to the registry. Then the event ended, and my life went on...Then I got my call. When The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation told me that I was a potential match for an unrelated recipient, I actually wasn’t surprised; I always had the feeling they would call me one day, and when they did, I knew that I had to see this process through as far as it took me. To read the full article, click here.
August 2016: Cascade High grad donates bone marrow to stranger with cancer
by Sharon Salyer
One day last November, Michael Cizek walked out of a library on the University of Florida campus. The Cascade High School graduate was greeted by a fellow student who had a question. “Hey, can you do this cheek swab?” he was asked. The procedure is part of a registration program through Gift of Life. The Florida-based bone marrow registry program matches donors with patients fighting blood cancers, such as leukemia. “You probably won’t get a call, but if you do, you could save someone’s life,” Cizek was told. To read the full article, click here.
August 2016: Class of 2016 Profile: Lindsay Katz runs bone marrow drives
by Staff Member
With another successful commencement behind us, recent High Point University graduates are preparing to commence prestigious career paths around the world at Fortune 500 companies, international service programs, public school systems, top-tier law, medical and graduate school programs, and many other esteemed organizations thanks to their journey at HPU. Here’s a glimpse of one extraordinary senior from the Class of 2016: Lindsay Katz. Katz accepted a position as a Community Engagement Coordinator with Gift of Life, a registry for bone marrow donors, in Washington, D.C. To read the full article, click here.
August 2016: Donating bone marrow — why it's so important
by WMAR Staff
You've probably given blood before, or maybe you've even given a family member one of your kidneys. But donating bone marrow is probably not the first thing you think of when someone mentions the word 'donate.' Every four minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with a type of blood cancer. But all hope isn't lost — those lives could be saved with a bone marrow transplant.
Gift of Life Marrow Registry is determined to give everyone battling blood cancer a second chance at life. But they need your help. You can register to become a bone marrow donor and possibly save a life.
Anchor Kelly Swoope sat down with Alison Iovino, a former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader whose life was transformed after becoming a bone marrow donor. You can watch her story in the video by clicking here.
August 2016: Bone marrow recipient meets donor who saved his life
by Linda Figueredo
Imagine meeting for the very first person the person who saved your life. That is exactly what happened this evening at the Boca Raton Marriott at Boca Center, when a bone marrow transplant donor and the young recipient met for the first time. To watch the video and read the full article, click here.
July 2016: UF student donates bone marrow to save a life
by Ethan Bauer
Somewhere in the U.S., a 52-year-old man sat waiting, hoping a random person somewhere in the world would save his life. Leukemia was killing him, and he was in need of a bone marrow transplant — without it, he would likely die. Meanwhile, in suburban Seattle, an unknown number appeared on the phone of Michael Cizek, a 20-year-old UF finance junior. The caller told Cizek, who had previously signed up with Gift of Life Marrow Registry, there was a 30 percent chance he was a match for the man in need of bone marrow. To read the full article, click here.
July 2016: College student makes life-saving gift to stranger
By Thais Leon-Miller, Jewish Press
Almost two years to the day that Ryan Corning swabbed his cheeks to be added to the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, he walked into the John Theurer Cancer Center at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and donated stem cells to a complete stranger. To read the full article, click here.
July 2016: Gift of Life Marrow Registry Performs Modern Miracles
By S. Mathur
July 2016: After years, Half Moon Bay man meets stem cell donor, Gift of Life registry connects cancer patient, match
By Samantha Wiegel
Andrew Michael and Carol Hatch may have only met in person for the first time in June, but their story truly began more than a decade ago as strangers living on opposite sides of the country who would forever change each other’s lives. The two have a lot in common, more than shared hobbies or religious backgrounds, Michael now carries Hatch’s stem cells and T-cells as he continues to battle non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To read the full article, click here.
June 2016: Jay Feinberg speaking at the One-to-One Global Forum
May 2016: Saving a Life is Easier Than You Think
By Jay Feinberg
Twenty years ago this month, I received the incredible news that would save my life. An exhaustive four-year search for a compatible bone marrow donor had finally resulted in a match, and after a successful transplant, my battle with leukemia at last was over. It was that search for a match and the overwhelming outpouring of support I received that inspired me to establish the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. To read the full article, click here.
March 2016: Equal Opportunity for Those Needing Bone Marrow Transplants
By Jay Feinberg
When I was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991, the doctor told me to go home and prepare my bucket list. While there was a cure for my disease — a bone marrow transplant — I would nonetheless die because I’d never find a matching donor, and the reason was because I was Jewish. At first I feared prejudice. Why, I asked, would my ethnicity impact my opportunity to benefit from the treatment that could save my life? The reason was simple: Tissue type is inherited, like eye or hair color. A patient’s best chance of finding a genetic match lies with those of similar ethnicity. To read the full article, click here.
January 2016: A blood cancer survivor meets her stem cell donor
by Kim Akel
Jill Ginsberg was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2012 by her medical oncologist at Texas Oncology. He referred her for an allogeneic transplant, which she had at our sister program in San Antonio, Texas. She received follow up care at our St. David’s CancerCare outpatient clinic, in Austin, and she soon became a favorite among patients and families as she volunteered in the hospital post-transplant. Jill met her stem cell donor, Jared Stein last year at the Gift of Life event in New York. To read the full article, click here.
