Bone marrow donor and recipient meet at annual transplant picnic

MAYWOOD, IL – On Sept. 7, a 29-year-old Oak Lawn man met the 29-year-old Maryland man whose bone marrow donation saved his life. The two were introduced at Loyola's 33rd annual bone marrow transplant celebration of survivorship, which is attended by doctors, nurses, donors, recipients of bone marrow transplants, and their families. 

Damon Young was 26 when he was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow cancer in which scar tissue (fibrosis) forms in the bone marrow, disrupting blood cell production. The only curative option for Young was a bone marrow transplant. Without which, the disease is universally fatal.

With no suitable family matches, Young needed a bone marrow donation from an unrelated donor. Unfortunately, finding a match can be especially difficult for African Americans like Young. When identifying a compatible donor, doctors look for a close match in cell surface proteins—specifically, the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type. A patient’s ethnic background plays a large role in finding a match. According to the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), only 8% of the registry’s 16 million members identify as Black or African American, making the search for a match more challenging.

When Young’s team of doctors at Loyola Medicine reached out to the NMDP to find a match for Young, they were met with multiple options. The best of which was 29-year-old Maryland resident, Syeed Mahdi. 

“Donor and recipient pairs with different racial backgrounds are uncommon, but they were a perfect match,” said Patrick Hagen, MD, director of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program. “It’s important for everyone to join the registry, especially those who may be from an underrepresented group.”

Mahdi, who is of mixed race— his mother is White, and his father is Black—joined the bone marrow registry in 2017 with his baseball team at an event hosted at his college. After getting swabbed, he didn’t hear anything for five years. Then, in 2022, while stopping for gas, he received a call informing him that he was a potential match for a male around his age and was asked if he was willing to help. Mahdi didn’t hesitate. “I thought about if I was in a situation where I needed help,” said Mahdi. “I would love for someone to help me because we're young, and we have a long life to live, and I would love to have someone else enjoy their life as I'm doing mine.” 

In December 2022, bone marrow was retrieved from Mahdi and transported to Loyola University Medical Center. These cells were stored and later transplanted into Young following his chemotherapy to eliminate any unhealthy cells. About 100 days after the procedure, patients undergo follow-up testing to check for any traces of cancer. On July 7, 2023, Young rang the Cancer Center’s bell, a milestone that signifies the end of a patient’s cancer treatment and remission. 

“During chemo, I was thinking the worst, I wasn’t expecting my hair to grow back or my features to return,” said Young. “But I made it through. I rang that bell, and I was very happy about that. It was beautiful."

The two men met for the first time at the event. Young invited his family, and both men had their mothers by their sides. “My mom was there when I had the procedure, and she thought it was an amazing thing,” said Mahdi. “As a parent, seeing someone you gave life to give a piece of themselves to help someone else’s life is amazing."

Thanks to Mahdi, Young is now a healthy 29-year-old man. After his two-year journey, he is cancer-free, and his myelofibrosis has only a small chance of returning.

“I’ve been thinking for the past two years about what I would say to him, and I’ve been offered that opportunity, and I still don’t know what to say,” said Young, prior to meeting Mahdi. “I hope he’ll accept a hug. I have nothing but the biggest heart for him. My life was saved because of him, and I’ll forever be grateful and indebted to him.”