Medford grad donates bone marrow

SHAWNA KONIECZNY

Medford graduate Leah Leonard currently attends University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. One of the clubs on campus had organized a bone marrow drive and Leonard was asked to participate.

“A club had a bone marrow drive. Basically where you just had your cheek swabbed and you fill out some information. Then they put you on the bone marrow registry, so it was super easy,” said Leonard. “When they had asked me to sign up for it, they were like ‘you’ll probably never be picked. There’s a 3% chance you’ll ever be a match for anyone.’” Leonard registered a year and a half ago and had forgotten that she was even on the registry until she received an email in May saying that she was a match for someone. She never thought that she’d be matched with someone who needed a donor.

Her brother had a stem cell transplant fifteen years ago, so she was aware that these kinds of transplants existed, but when it came to bone marrow, she had never learned much about the process until she registered.

When she was first approached with the idea of donating bone marrow, Leonard was hesitant because of the common misconception that they have to drill through your back into your bone and it’s often depicted as a painful process. While donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure, it’s a simple and easy process where doctors use a special hollow needle to collect the marrow. Anesthesia is given for the procedure and 67% of donors return home that same day.

The donation that Leonard did was actually a peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation, which collects bloodforming cells, or blood stem cells. Leonard said that the transplanted cells create new bone marrow in the recipient’s body. While these cells can be donated from the bone marrow itself, they can also be found in the circulating peripheral blood. Prior to the procedure, Leonard had to take injections of a drug called filgrastim each day starting five days before the injection. Filgrastim stimulates the bone marrow to make more bloodforming cells and moves them from the marrow into the bloodstream so that they can be collected.

The procedure Leonard underwent was similar to that of collecting plasma from one’s blood. “They take it out of one arm, through a machine. Whatever they don’t need they just stick back through your other arm,” said Leonard.

“It was honestly way more uninvolved than I thought,” said Leonard. After she was told she was a match, they sent her supplies to give more cheek swabs to confi rm the match. From there, she went to Madison to get a physical to make sure that she was in proper health for the donation.

The procedure itself took place about three weeks ago and was not invasive. Leonard said it took about four and a half hours and was like donating blood, so it was very easy. She said that the worst part was having to sit still during the duration of the donation. When it came to side effects, she only had a small amount of bruising where the needles were injected. Leonard said that she went to sleep for twelve hours and was back to work the following day.

Leonard registered and donated through DKMS, a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to fighting against blood cancer and blood disorders. DKMS provided all the information that Leonard needed. She said that they were very helpful and that she had a representative from the organization that worked with her and answered all of her questions.

While she wasn’t sure what the official diagnosis of her match was, she was told that if the transplant was successful, the treatment would be curative. “Four and a half hours and someone else’s life has been saved. It’s pretty crazy,” said Leonard. “I think that it’s something people should look into if they are interested.” DKMS’s website offers an easy way to register to be a potential donor.