Health

Marrow Donor Meets Transplant Recipient

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A few years ago, an immune system cancer would have made climbing stairs nearly impossible for 46-year-old Caroline Manzie.

Sunday, she made it look easy, thanks to a bone marrow transplant from a donor she met for the first time.

"I went from worrying every time, few months at clinic that he was going to say this is it, and now pray to God I don't have that worry anymore -- at least it seems to be working out that way. A few side effects, but I'm tough," Menzie said.

"You go through a small surgery, but when you think about it in comparison with what Caroline has been through, my small surgery is nothing," said transplant donor Andrea McGavin.

Manzie had suffered with advanced non-Hodgkins lymphoma for 13 years.

Despite a stem cell transplant using her "own" cells in 1997, doctors say the cancer kept coming back, ravaging her body.

"She was dying, there's no doubt about it," said Loyola University Medical Center Dr. Patrick Stiff. "We had run out of drugs. We had run out of treatments."

But two years ago, 26-year-old Andrea McGavin found out her cells might work. She volunteered to give the priceless gift.

"I just got the call out of the blue," said McGavin. "I think I was getting ready for work one morning and they called two years after I'd been on the registry."

The two joined about 400 other transplant patients to celebrate the 20th year of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Program at Loyola's Cardinal Bernadin Cancer Center.

Doctors hope their examples of strength and generosity will inspire more people to join the national registry.

And what's next for the special donor and recipient? Well, they say they had planned to have a small get together tonight, but they'll spend an extended vacation together later this year.

According to the National Marrow Donor Program up to 70 percent of people needing a bone marrow transplant may end up searching for a donor outside of their families.

Doctors say they need more minorities to sign up for the registry.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

---