You’ll often find me sitting behind my desk in our South Florida office writing letters, signing checks, reviewing procedures and managing contracts. It’s all part of running a bone marrow registry, and while I know this is an essential part of my job, boy do I relish the opportunity to get out there in the field. And I don’t mean for business meetings either (shhh… don’t tell anyone). You see, the greatest experience in the world for me is getting to know our donors in person. Sharing a few minutes with these real life heroes … There’s nothing like it!

I had such an opportunity recently when I paid a visit to two Gift of Life donors during their peripheral blood stem cell collections at New York Presbyterian Hospital. It was a surprise visit (sometimes I like to be unpredictable). Malka, one of our workup coordinators, was on site with the donors. I sent her an email from my Blackberry: “Hi Malka,” I wrote, “Can you come out in the hall for a minute?” No doubt she was confused. Was I kidding around from behind my desk 1,200 miles away in Florida, or was I really standing just a few feet away in the hall outside the apheresis suite on the third floor of the Starr Pavilion? Well now, we all know the answer to that question!

I walked inside and met our amazing donors. Ronita and Yaakov are two very special people with two amazing stories. Let me start with Ronita. She is 22 years old – a graduate of UCLA, and joined the Gift of Life Registry while on a trip sponsored by Taglit Birthright Israel a few years ago. Gift of Life had set up a “Swab Station” at a large celebration called a “Mega Event” held in the Jerusalem convention center. Ronita was one of 561 participants who swabbed their cheeks that evening, and a few years later she became the seventh donor to get the call that she was a life-saving match!

A few weeks later, as I stood before her at New York Presbyterian, I couldn’t help but thank her for what she was doing for a 39 year old woman with lymphoma whom she had never met. Ronita is very humble, and didn’t want to take credit for her tremendous act of heroism. She actually thanks ME for establishing Gift of Life to give her the opportunity! Can you imagine? What a truly special person she is.
Later that day, Ronita emailed me, “How could I NOT do the cheek swab? How could I NOT agree to donate? Six hours of my life with a couple needles in me for someone to be able to live another 60 years? Six years? Six months? Six days? Six hours? Six minutes? It’s incomparable!”

Accompanying Ronita for her donation was her father and her brother Rodney. The first thing that Rodney said when he met me? “I’d like to run a drive in my community in Los Angeles. What’s involved?” Need I say more? Clearly, being a mensch runs in the Rabbani family!

Donating just a few steps away in the next bed was Yaakov. Tested only six months ago while studying in yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey, Yaakov is 19 years old from the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Joining him for his donation was his father, and a fellow named Eli who actually organized the drive for Gift of Life in Lakewood! When our coordinators were unable to locate Yaakov, Eli — trained as an official Gift of Life donor advocate — tracked him down in South Fallsburgh, New York, where he is currently studying. Yaakov’s father was very proud of his son, and shared with me that he is very well known as a Talmudic scholar among his peers. As we got to talking, I soon discovered a truly extraordinary coincidence. It turns out that Yaakov’s uncle is a bone marrow transplant recipient living in Israel who found his donor in the Gift of Life Registry! One relative received, and a few years later another relative gave. It is such a small world.

I concluded my afternoon visit with our donors, and then headed to the airport for my flight to an international transplant conference. Interesting, to be sure, but nothing like the sheer exhilaration of spending a few hours with heroes.