Michele was an active young woman, working as an attorney and engaged to be married when she was diagnosed with leukemia. She’s pictured above with Lisa, whose bone marrow donation save Michele’s life.

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Transcript

My name is Michele. I am 39, will be 40 in December. My diagnosis was leukemia. Because of my diagnosis—I had something called a FLT-3 gene mutation—they knew that I was going to need a bone marrow transplant. So they started the search for any possible donors.

My sister got tested, and they found out that she was not a match, so they said they would have to go to the registry. They came back originally and said there were about 16 potential matches. They searched through that and actually found two exact matches, and I had my transplant on March 4th. Just two weeks ago yesterday, I actually got to meet my donor.

I actually have videotape of our meeting and pictures, and it was just so overwhelming to see this person who did not know me from Adam and so selflessly saved my life. We actually wrote each other letters and exchanged them before we met. I said, “Hallmark doesn’t really make a card for ‘thanks for your life-saving marrow.’ This is going to have to do.” There are just no words to express my gratitude to her. When she walked in the door, there was not a dry eye in the room. Everyone was crying. We hugged, and it was a phenomenal night.

She is 33 years old. She lives in Los Angeles. We seem to have a lot in common other than she is a vegetarian and I am not. She likes cats, and I am not a big fan. But personality-wise, we are very similar. People actually have said in pictures of us that they think we look alike and we have the same smile. She happened to just get on the registry in 2005. She was at an event at her synagogue, and right when they were closing down the booth, she decided to get swabbed. Luckily for me, she did.