When he got swabbed in September 2009, Zev, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Rockland County, New York, never imagined he would be called by the Gift of Life less than a year later. Yet that is exactly what happened. “Good afternoon, Zev,” Hadassah said, “you have come up as a match for an 8-year-old girl with acute leukemia who needs a bone marrow transplant.” Hadassah is one of the Gift of Life coordinators who contacts donors when identified as a potential match.

Zev has known a lot of people who have suffered the wrath of cancer in their lives. This was one of the reasons he wanted to get swabbed, to possibly be the one to save someone else’s life who was critically ill.

So, on a chilly September afternoon, Zev decided to swab his cheek at a drive held at a Yeshiva near the Wesley Kosher Supermarket, in Monsey, New York. Along with his pregnant wife, niece and a friend, he joined the Gift of Life Registry as a potential bone marrow donor. He did not know that the mitzvah he performed on that day would change his life forever. “You assume that you won’t get called,” he told me, “but my wife, who was pregnant at the time, and I both felt it was important to get swabbed.”

When Hadassah called Zev on that Monday morning, he didn’t know who she was. When she asked him if he remembered doing the cheek swab, he stopped for a second and remembered that day in September. Inquisitively listening, Zev was curious about the purpose of this phone call. “She filled me in on what it meant to be a match and explained to me whether or not I decide to donate, if I am willing to go through with it, there is a 30 percent chance that I will be identified as a complete match after the next step, which involved going to a lab for a blood test.”

Zev discussed the opportunity with his wife and two family physicians. The decision was unanimous: “How could anyone refuse the chance to give the gift of life?” So Zev went in for further testing. A few days later, Hadassah called him back and said, “Zev, you are indeed THE match.”

“The idea of being a match to me was such a spiritual moment,” Zev said. “I felt that G-d was taking two human beings on earth, and putting them together in a special way… it was a powerful moment for me; I felt as if there was an angel on the phone calling me that day.”

Fascinated and exhilarated by the entire process, Zev was put in touch with Hildy, one of Gift of Life’s nurse case managers. They talked on the phone and scheduled the date for his physical exam and his April donation. Coincidentally, the date chosen was around the time that his wife was due to deliver their fourth child. “I discussed with my wife, that we would either have a baby, or she would be overdue by the day of my donation,” said Zev. “She has a history of going over the due date, so this would be a close call, but we were both comfortable with our decision.”

Sure enough, Monday night Zev’s wife was ready to go to the hospital. That’s right – Zev’s wife was in labor! Their baby girl was brought into the world later on in the early hours of that Tuesday morning. On that same beautiful April morning, Zev and his father left for the hospital for Zev to give someone else’s daughter the gift of a second chance at life. While his wife – along with his mother – were already at another hospital in a neighboring city just having brought a new daughter into the world.

Zev joked, “Having a baby is far more difficult than donating marrow or stem cells, our feeling was that G-d wanted to bring life into the world in both ways.”

A month later – just a few weeks ago – Zev and his wife attended the 10th Annual Gift of Life Gala held in New York City. One of the reasons Zev asked her to attend was because he wanted to share the experience with her. “The Gala was beautiful,” he said. “It was inspirational to me to see the donors and recipients meet.”

Zev told me that he found the entire experience truly powerful and emotional. He was overwhelmed by the fact that someone, somewhere, could be sick and depended entirely on another person for their very existence. The Gala reminded him that life is fragile – something we all too easily forget unless we are touched personally by someone in need. In this case, it was someone he didn’t even know – a little girl somewhere in the world, who has now been given a second chance at life.