Vicki’s Journey from Donor to Gift of Life Ambassador
Nov 30, 2011 by Gift of Life
News
Vicki is not only a bone marrow donor but a Gift of Life Ambassador. She learned about Gift of Life when her cousin, Sacha, joined the bone marrow registry and was subsequently called twice as a potential donor for a patient. Though he never donated, it inspired Vicki to find a way to join the registry. She received her chance on her birthright trip to Israel in July 2007. It was the idea that she or someone she loved could need a transplant, so how could she not join the registry? There were no questions to ask, just the desire to help someone in need.
In June 2010, Vicki received the call that she was a match for a patient in need; so, she made the trip to New York to donate peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) that August. The entire donation process went well, and although she experienced some mild discomfort during the six hour procedure, it was nonetheless worth every second of it to give her recipient a second chance at life.
Immediately after donating, she filled out a questionnaire form which asked if she would be willing to become an Ambassador, which is a representative of Gift of Life who speaks at donor drives or even organizes a donor drive themselves. A month later, she was asked to contact a young lady who had been called to donate but was having doubts. Vicki spoke with her for an hour, telling her about her own donation experience and answering questions; filled with confidence, the girl decided to donate. The logical next step for Vicki was to run a donor drive to help spread the word and get more people to join the registry.
Vicki organized her first donor drive in June 2011 in conjunction with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Redford, MI. Her company, Detroit Diesel Corporation located in Redford, where she works as a Project Manager, sponsored a tent at the charity event. Coincidentally, the theme of their tent was raising awareness for blood cancers, so she asked if she could run a bone marrow drive. Over the course of eight hours, Vicki and her co-worker and friend, Laura, swabbed the cheeks of 41 people for the registry.
She also ran a drive at Camp Casey Fest, an event that benefits children with cancer, on October 15th in Ferndale, MI. Paige, a recruitment coordinator for Gift of Life, contacted Vicki about the possibility of running a drive at the festival, and she graciously agreed. Though the drive wasn’t as successful as hoped, she, alongside her volunteers Laura, Chuck and Robby, recruited 32 new potential donors.
The last event she ran was a donor recruitment drive and Halloween-themed bake sale at her company on October 28th. She wanted to host a fundraiser to raise money to cover the cost of the $54 lab processing fee for the kits from all three drives. Along with selling baked goods, they had a raffle where they gave away a pair of Detroit Lions football tickets. They succeeded in raising $1,168 dollars and registering 30 more potential donors!
When asked what made her events so successful, Vicki mentioned that she couldn’t have done it without her volunteers, especially Laura. She was incredibly thankful to have someone by her side to help with planning and running the drives. It also helped to educate the potential donors prior to the drives by posting frequently asked questions and to put up drive fliers that had Ezra’s photo on them; Ezra is a two year old from New Jersey who is need of a transplant, so it helped to show the humanity and give a “face” to the cause. People could relate because it could be their child, nephew, or brother who needed a transplant. Her determination to help others prompted her to become a donor, and ultimately, to run donor drives at her work and community; though she lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, she spends most of her time in the Metro-Detroit area; so, it made sense to run her drives there.
Her passion for saving lives is evident in her thoughts and actions, and her own story of donation has encouraged others to get involved and join the registry. If you are interested in becoming a Gift of Life Ambassador, please contact Recruitment at 1-800-9MARROW.
