On November 20, during Hockey Fights Cancer Month, the Florida Panthers hosted an introduction of a South Florida transplant recipient to his lifesaving donor. Emotions were high as Gift of Life donor Chad Campo, 48, of Attleborough, Mass. greeted the man whose life he saved, Neil Fried, 70, for the first time. The meeting was semi-virtual, with Neil at the stadium and Chad participating via videoconference.

Chad joined Gift of Life at Harvard University during Match Madness recruitment drives held by Hillel International in April 2015. When he swabbed his cheek, Chad was hopeful that he would be able to donate. Blood stem cell and marrow donors must be a tissue type match for a patient for the transplant to be successful but finding close enough matches for transplants to happen is rare.

When he learned in 2019 he could potentially save the life of a man in his late 60s who was battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), he was thrilled for the opportunity.

“I never had a second thought about going through with the blood stem cell donation,” said Chad, who is now 48 years old. “I didn’t really think of it as saving someone, I simply wanted to give him a chance for a longer life.”

Neil was diagnosed with ALL in March 2018 and began treatment at the Sylvester Cancer Center in Miami, where he received his transplant in October 2019.

“I had little understanding of any of this, I was always healthy,” said Neil. “My family was disappointed that they could not donate because no one was a match, but the search for my donor was brief and I am grateful and amazed that such people exist.”

Neil, along with his physician, Dr. Antonio Jimenez of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, was given the honor of dropping the puck to start the Panthers versus Minnesota Wild game.

Gift of Life thanks our partners the Florida Panthers for their ongoing support in raising awareness of the need for lifesaving donors to cure blood cancer and related diseases.