A Donor’s Experience
Bone marrow donor: The donor enters the hospital on the day of, or day before, your transplant. He or she sleeps through the harvest and doesn’t feel anything during it. Doctors use a needle to remove a small amount of marrow from the donor’s hip bones. The donor leaves the hospital later that day or the next and may feel a little sore in the hips, as if he or she fell while roller-blading.
Peripheral stem cell donor: The donor is hooked up to an apheresis (ay-fur-EE-sis) machine which draws blood from one arm, filters it to collect stem cells, then returns the leftover blood to the other arm. The procedure is painless but takes several hours and may be repeated a few times before your transplant to get enough cells. The cells are frozen until the day of your transplant.
Umbilical cord donor: After a baby is born, the umbilical cord is disconnected. Stem cells inside the cord are collected and stored until they’re ready to be used by someone like you.
Donating to yourself: Your bone marrow stem cell harvest will take place before your chemotherapy/radiation therapy since these treatments destroy the cells
"I wrote a letter to my donor to thank him for giving me his bone marrow.  I call him my 'Blood Brother.'  We still stay in touch."

Age 61/2, 4 years after transplant
25c.jpg (75736 bytes)Cristina's Story

When Cristina found out that her half-sister Antonia’s marrow was a good match, she was very happy. But Cristina also felt bad about putting Antonia through the harvest. Antonia said, “You’re my sister—you don’t have to feel bad.” Antonia was a little nervous about the harvest, but she also felt she had a very special gift to give—the chance to help Cristina become healthy again.