Catherine joined the Gift of Life registry in 2008 in the hopes of matching a friend’s father who had leukemia and needed a transplant. While she was not a match for him, she was happy to stay in the registry, although she never imagined she would ever get called. When she learned years later that she was a match for a 13-year-old girl suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia, she became emotional. “Being a mother of four kids myself, I couldn't imagine what this family was going through,” she said.

 

From the first phone call, Catherine was 100% dedicated to doing anything she could to help this young girl. With the full support of her family, she donated bone marrow in June 2015. “There was relatively minor discomfort on my end,” she said. “I was back to normal within 72 hours—grocery shopping, picking up my kids, etc. I was running at the three week mark. If I were asked to donate again, I would absolutely do it.”

 

Catherine hopes that her story will encourage others to enter the registry. She explained, “It is humbling to have the ability to help someone in this way. It was just as much a gift to me to be able to help someone else. It was also a profound lesson to my kids about helping others, even people we do not know personally.”