See The Moment A Cancer Survivor Meets Her Life-Saving Donor

in a Utah Canyon straight out of a postcard it's beautiful Maggie cambora and Ron wardley are just getting to know each other it's all sinking and oh it hasn't sanken before a new friendship that almost didn't happen you go from being a healthy mom to being on your Deathbed it sounds morbid but it's true a mother of two and hairdresser from Illinois Maggie was 38 when she was diagnosed with cancer it was a downward spiral very very quick from the ER doctor she came in and she's like you know we ran some tests and I saw blasts and your blood and your bone marrow she's like and honey I believe you have leukemia and I looked at her and I'm like what I'm like that's a childhood cancer Maggie was treated for acute myeloid leukemia but after three rounds of chemo and one stem transplant nothing worked or only hope finding another stem donor that would hopefully be a better match and [Music] the doctors pretty much told my husband that there was nothing that they could do and I remember laying on my side just praying so hard that there was a donor out there I can save my life because there's no way I could leave this planet and when that light finally came what did it look like I think they said we found a donor we found a perfect donor we found a 10 out of 10 and his DNA is so close to yours he could be your brother that transplant worked and within days Maggie's body accepted the stem cells which began making new blood free of cancer but as she started to heal what Maggie wanted more than anything was to meet the person who saved her life now 19 months after that life-saving donation Maggie is meeting that man for the very first time foreign but how the lives of these two strangers became so intertwined as a miracle that began like any other day for Ron how did you get involved dkms did a a donor drive and they were signing people up which is just an easy cheek swab and I have a close family friend that that suffered and passed away from leukemia so for me it wasn't a question in my mind to sign up three years later Ron got the call that he was a DNA match at first I was like wow you almost forgot that you registered but at the same time it wasn't really a question or hesitation for me like if I can help somebody I will through a process that extracts stem cells from a series of blood draws Ron was able to donate 21 million cells that were immediately flown to Maggie 2 000 miles away what was it like seeing it say to the person who saved your life besides thank you it's the most selfless act he could ever he's not only saved me he saved my family there's no words that need to be said like we just Embrace and we both knew you know and you just have that connection and we're always going to have that connection for the rest of our lives and I know you're a man of few words laughs that's just because it's not about me it's not my story this is about Maggie be here and my children they wouldn't have a mom and my husband any words I would do it again and you want to see how easy it is when the time that it took to watch that story I've actually been doing the three cheek swabs that Ron was talking about there needed to register to become a stem cell donor through the non-profit run used at dkms it's very simple uh you just rub it in your mouth for three minutes three different swabs it only takes a minute each swab and then dkms can test to see if I'm in a DNA match for anyone in need so inspiring to see that story and as for Maggie she's now been in remission for over a year thanks to that stem cell transplant and actually Ron donated so many stem cells that some are cryogenically frozen in case Maggie ever needs more wow all you do is take this put this in the envelope and then send it on its way I can't believe how easy it is yeah so good good reminder thank you that was a beautiful story it's a great way to start the week one small eye literally one small like save the life save the life not changed it see hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11 A.M Eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming Channel today all day to watch head to today.com all day or click the link right here

Channel: TODAY

Views: 31,928

Keywords: Interview, NBC News, News, Today, Today Show, current events, newscast, politics

Id: 8maPN4wku6U

Length: 5min 5sec (305 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 12 2022