Student at Southeastern U. in Lakeland hopes she saved a life with stem cell donation

LAKELAND — When Noelle Wood first tried to donate blood, she watched in sadness as the collection team had to discard her sample.

Wood, a student at Southeastern University in Lakeland, said she began clotting because of low iron levels in her blood. That forced an end of the attempted donation, and she was told that her blood could not be used because the phlebotomist had not collected a full pint.

Despite that negative experience, Wood registered at age 18 with Be the Match, a nonprofit that harvests bone marrow or blood cells for infusion into patients afflicted with life-threatening blood cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, and other illnesses.

Wood, 20, traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this year and successfully completed a donation of peripheral blood stem cells to be transplanted into a patient. Wood, a social work major from the Orlando area, said the desire to donate flowed from her ardent Christian faith.

She said a friend told her the donation reflected the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, allowing himself to be crucified to save humanity.

“And so, he gave his life for me,” Wood said. “And, not that this is at all the same magnitude, but I'm giving my physical body, part of it, for somebody else. I mean, it's a life-saving transplant for them. So, like Jesus saved my soul, I can save somebody's life with just my stem cells.”

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Be the Match, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, says that it has supported more than 120,000 blood stem-cell transplants since its founding in 1987. The nonprofit oversees a registry that matches donors with patients and coordinates the harvesting and transplanting of bone marrow or stem cells.

The program provides transplant material for patients diagnosed with dozens of blood disorders, including forms of severe anemia, immune system disorders and sickle cell disease.

The likelihood of success is highest when the donor’s human leukocyte antigen — a set of proteins found in most cells — closely matches with that of the recipient. But 70% of patients do not have a fully matched donor in their families, according to Be the Match.

The nonprofit maintains a registry, and when it identifies a patient whose HLA is similar to that on file with a potential donor it arranges for a donation.

Wood, who expects to graduate in December, learned about Be the Match from an advertisement on Instagram.

“I just kept seeing this ad over and over again,” she said. “And eventually I clicked on it to check it out, ‘Is this legit?’ I was researching the different procedures, and I decided that it was something I wanted to do.”

Seeking young donors

Wood was 18 at the time, the minimum age for registering with Be the Match. The program focuses its recruitment on potential donors ages 18 through 35, as medical research shows the chance of transplant success is highest with younger donors, though those who register can remain eligible up to age 61.

“The majority of the time, we see that doctors do request donors who are younger — usually, 18 to 24 is the age range that we see most requested by doctors, because they're going to be evaluating the potential matches on the registry,” said Kate McDermott, a spokesperson for the nonprofit. “So that’s why it's really important to us for people ages 18 to 35 to register, because we want that younger population to be able to be on the registry for as long as they can be.”

Be the Match sent Wood a kit for taking a cheek swab and then returning it, so that her HLA could be recorded. At that early stage, Wood told members of a church group that she hoped to become a donor and asked them to pray for her.

“And someone in my church small group, this older gentleman, he starts crying, and he told me that his wife, who is now dead, that she received a transplant and it gave them, like, 10 more years together,” Wood said. “And that was such a beautiful moment.”

Wood had no idea when she might be called upon to donate, if ever. Two years passed before she received an email informing her that she had been matched with a patient.

“I'm not thinking every day, ‘Am I going to get a call?’” she said. “I'm just living my life, right? So it was definitely a surprise, and it was really exciting when I got the email.”

As Wood learned, Be the Match covers all the costs for donors and one guest. The program paid for airfare, lodging, transportation and meals for her and her mother, who traveled to Washington, D.C., the location of one of the program’s participating hospitals.

For five days before the procedure, donors receive injections of filgrastim, a drug that increases their volume of blood stem cells. She said the drug caused some bone pain but described it as “definitely bearable.”

Recipient a mystery

Recalling her previous inability to donate blood, Wood asked for advice and was told to drink plenty of water in hopes of preventing blood clots from forming. The routine physical she received before the donation included a vein assessment, and she was told that the veins in her right arm appeared better suited for inserting a line.

“But for the procedure, they actually used the vein in my left arm,” she said. “And I was praying prior to the procedure that my veins would work out. If they don't, you can get something called a central line, which would be a line that would go in my neck. And if I had to do that, I would have done it. But I was really hoping it could just be in my arm.”

The harvesting of peripheral blood stem cells is done through an outpatient procedure called apheresis, which does not require anesthesia. As the donor sits in a chair, blood is removed through a needle in one arm and run through a line into a machine that collects the blood-forming cells. The blood is then returned through a line into the other arm or hand in a process similar to the one used for blood platelet donation.

Wood said her donation took 6½ hours. She began to feel numbness and tingling in her lips and the tip of her nose during the procedure, signs of a calcium deficiency, which was remedied by eating yogurt and taking an over-the-counter antacid containing calcium carbonate. She described her recovery from the donation as “super easy.”

Be the Match follows strict confidentiality guidelines set by federal law, McDermott said. Wood is not allowed to disclose the age of the recipient, the patient’s disease or even the date of her donation.

For one year after the procedure, a donor and recipient have the option of communicating by anonymous emails routed by Be the Match. After a year, if both the donor and recipient are willing, the nonprofit provides each with contact information.

Wood said she would like to speak to the recipient, if the person is open to the idea. Wood, who teaches at the Pathways School of Excellence, a middle and high school program for students with special needs, also wants to encourage fellow collegians to register with Be the Match.

“I was talking to one of my professors, and she said, like, ‘I'm going to get my daughter on this registry,’” Wood said, “which was the most straightforward, ‘I'm going to do it’ response that I've gotten.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Southeastern student hopes she saved a life with stem cell donation