A 25th anniversary is a big milestone. The Gift of Life Marrow Registry marked the occasion with multiple events held in New York City from May 31 to June 5. Highlighting the festivities were the first-time meetings between transplant recipients and their lifesaving donors. Since they do not learn one another’s names until at least one year after the transplant, these introductions are special and memorable.
Bone marrow recipient Richard Hoffman, 60, of Ithaca, NY met his donor, David Rose, 57, of Berkeley Heights, NJ, at a private suite at Citi Field moments before the start of the Mets/White Sox game on May 31. The pair shared a tearful embrace, as Hoffman, who suffered from the blood plasma cell disorder Multiple Myeloma, met Rose, whose donation, made possible through the Gift of Life, has given Hoffman renewed health and vitality.
On June 2, the Gift of Life held its 16th Annual Gala at the Grand Hyatt New York, honoring transplant recipient and advocate Wendy Siegel with the Partners for Life award, and introducing other transplant recipients to the heroic donors they have never met. In recognition, the Empire State Building, East River Plaza, Helmsley Building and Millennium Hotel were lit in orange.
Siegel, the wife of Stephen Siegel, chairman of Global Brokerage for CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate company, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in 2012. The bone marrow transplant that saved her life came on June 17, 2013. Since her diagnosis, Siegel and her husband have worked tirelessly in support of bone marrow donation awareness and registration. To date, their efforts have resulted in more than 21,000 sponsored donors, 267 donor/recipient matches, and 31 transplants.
“We’re all on a journey and we decide what we’re going to make of it,” said Siegel. “I am not a hero for having an illness, an illness doesn’t make anyone a hero. A hero is someone who leaves this world somewhat better than the way they found it.”
The gala also brought together donor Jill Greenberg Karten, 25, from Queens, with five-year-old recipient Bennett Vulykh, from Buffalo Grove, Ill (pictured at the top of the page). When Vulykh was only two years old he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He didn’t require a transplant at first, but in late August 2014, he had relapsed and a bone marrow transplant became essential. Vulykh’s procedure took place on December 10, 2014 at Chicago’s Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital. His recovery took about two months and he has been healthy and happy ever since.
“We got lucky,” said Vitaliy Vulykh, Bennett’s father. “We were blessed. At some point a brave girl decided she would throw her name in the ring willing to give a complete stranger the most amazing gift, a second chance at life.”
Also introduced at the gala for the first time were donor Carol Hatch, 60, of Lunenburg, Mass. and her recipient, Andrew Michael, age 56, of Half Moon Bay, Calif. Michael, a seismologist, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2003. By 2014, he was in desperate need of a peripheral blood stem cell transplant; however, none of his family members were a match.
Luckily, after a search through donor registries, an appropriate donor was found in Hatch. Two separate transplants were performed on Michael – the first in July 2014 and the most recent in May 2016.
The gala, emceed by Broadway, Hollywood and TV actress Tovah Feldshuh, also recognized the Real Estate Board of New York and the Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation for their efforts on behalf of the Gift of Life.
Photos of the Gala may be viewed at www.giftoflife.smugmug.com/Gala/2016
As the final event in the 25th Anniversary celebration, Gift of Life served as the Grandstand Sponsor and was featured on a float for the 52nd annual Celebrate Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue on June 5. A station for swabbing those interested in joining the bone marrow registry was setup in the grandstand area, while dozens of volunteers, campus ambassadors and Gift of Life staff rode the float and passed out Gift of Life t-shirts and bracelets. Gift of Life Donor Services Assistant and rapper Nosson Zand provided the entertainment
“It’s difficult to express in words what this 25th anniversary means to me,” said Gift of Life CEO and Founder Jay Feinberg. “My own life and my own experiences are so closely tied to this organization. The good that it has done for so many people is important, and deserves to be celebrated each year.”