On her wedding anniversary this year, Floyds Knobs resident Debbie Missi received a phone call giving her and her husband, Pat, a reason to celebrate more than just 27 blissful years of marriage.

Debbie Missi had been given the chance to save the life of a 14-year-old girl with acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML.

She was a match for a bone marrow donation.

“I first learned about bone marrow donation [six years ago] when local attorney and humanitarian Sam Day was battling AML and was not able to find a relative match,” she said.

Debbie Missi’s daughter was a classmate of Day’s son, which, for her, put the situation in perspective.

“My heart just went out thinking they could maybe lose their father,” she said.

AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Normally, bone marrow develops cells called blasts which become white blood cells — the cells responsible for fighting off infections.

For a person with AML, these cells are abnormal and fail to do their job. The abnormal cells multiply rapidly, crowding out the healthy cells the body needs. The first line of treatment for AML is chemotherapy. If that fails, a bone marrow transplant is the next step.

Debbie Missi will be donating through the James Graham Brown Cancer Center in Louisville. Sharon Coke serves as her donor facilitator, and she’s set to have the procedure Thursday.

The most common side-effect is fatigue for a few days or weeks, Coke said.

“[Finding a bone marrow match] is like hitting the lottery,” Coke said.

Though someone may have the same markers in their bone marrow as another person, Coke explained they must be in the right combination for a transplant to be effective. If a patient can’t find a match within their family, doctors turn to the National Bone Marrow Program registry, the same program Debbie Missi was matched through.

Despite the fact that millions like Debbie Missi have stepped forward and joined the registry, there are still patients who are unable to find a match.

“A Caucasian has a 70 percent chance of finding a match through the registry,” Coke said. “People of different racial backgrounds have a much more difficult time of finding a match.”

To date, the J.G. Brown Cancer Center has facilitated 100 collections for the National Bone Marrow Program, 59 of them being bone marrow collections. Missi will be the 60th bone marrow donor and become the center’s 101st collection.

“[Debbie Missi] is a very giving and caring person,” Pat Missi said.

Their family dealt with cancer before when his brother was diagnosed with leukemia. “This has been a great experience. [Our] families … and my brother who had cancer [were] very touched by it,” Pat Missi said.

Debbie Missi won’t be allowed to contact the patient until at least a year after the transplant has taken place, but she did send the teenage girl a card ahead of time.

“I put myself in the place of the girl’s parents,” she said. “If I was in that situation, how happy I would be that a donor was found for my daughter.”

The cost to become a donor and possibly save a life is minimal. With bone marrow registration drives in place to wave the registration fee, other costs — including the procedure — are for the most part covered by the National Bone Marrow Program.

Coke said the biggest reimbursement for most came from knowing their actions were making a difference.

“Families are just so grateful,” she said.

For Debbie Missi, this chance to save a life has left her feeling honored and privileged.

“I just feel a sense of satisfaction that I am able to help someone,” she said. “I think it’s a way for an ordinary person to do something extraordinary.”



ABOUT NATIONAL BONE MARROW PROGRAM

• The National Marrow Donor Program and its Be The Match Foundation are nonprofit organizations dedicated to creating an opportunity for all patients to receive the bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant they need, when they need it.