Oxford Fire Sgt. Blair Lockwood has been presented a unique opportunity to potentially save a life that doesn’t involve pulling someone from a burning building or giving chest compressions in the back of an ambulance.
The 35-year-old White Lake resident is preparing to donate stem cells from his blood to a 67-year-old woman suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a rapidly growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
‘The chance to help somebody out ? I’m not going to turn that down, especially given the career field that I’m in,? said Blair, a full-time firefighter/paramedic with Oxford since 2006. ‘Any chance that we get to help somebody, we’re going to take it.?
Lockwood is one of more than 11 million members of the Be the Match Registry, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Be the Match is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping patients get lifesaving transplants involving bone marrow, the stem cells found in circulating blood and umbilical cord blood.
For patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and many other life-threatening diseases, one of the aforementioned types of transplants may be their best treatment option or only potential for a cure, according to Be the Match’s website www.marrow.org
Unfortunately, 70 percent of patients who need a transplant don’t have a matching donor in their family, so they must rely on the national registry to find one.
To date, Be the Match has facilitated more than 61,000 transplants, which is an average of more than 520 per month.
Lockwood signed up for the registry back in 2005 when a Waterford deputy fire chief’s wife had cancer and potential donors were being sought.
‘It’s the right thing to do,? he said.
Lockwood wasn’t a match then, but his name and information remained on the registry. He didn’t hear anything for nine years, then one day, out of the blue, earlier this year, Lockwood received a call informing him that he was a potential match for a patient.
‘It goes to show just because you do something one day doesn’t mean it’s not going to affect somebody else 10 years down the road,? he said.
Lockwood agreed to give a blood sample for further testing and the result was a perfect match.
‘I’m a 10-out-of-10 match for this patient,? he said. ‘They pretty much said we could almost be related.?
According to the Be the Match website, the best transplant outcomes happen when the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) markers of a patient and donor closely match.
HLA is a protein ? or marker ? found on most cells in the body. The immune system uses HLA markers to know which cells belong in a person’s body and which do not.
‘There are many HLA markers that make a person’s tissue type unique; however, matching certain markers is what is critical to a successful transplant,? according to the Be the Match website.
A donor and patient are considered a potential match when they have a minimum of six basic HLA markers in common. After that, additional testing is conducted to determine which donor most closely matches the patient’s HLA markers.
About 1 in 500 members of the Be the Match Registry will go on to donate either bone marrow or peripheral (circulating) blood stem cells to a patient.
A patient’s likelihood of finding a matching donor on the Be the Match Registry is estimated to range from 76 to 97 percent, depending on race and ethnicity.
Lockwood is set to make his donation on Sept. 30 at the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor.
Donating peripheral blood stem cells is a nonsurgical procedure and the most common way to donate.
For five days leading up to the procedure, Lockwood will receive a daily injection of a drug called filgrastim, which increases the number of blood-forming cells (stem cells) in the bloodstream by moving them out of the bone marrow.
‘This way I have an overabundance of them,? Lockwood said
For the actual procedure, Lockwood will undergo a process called apheresis.
A needle will be placed into each of his arms. Blood will be removed from a vein in one arm and passed through a blood cell separator machine, which collects blood-forming cells along with platelets and some white blood cells.
The remaining blood, consisting of plasma and red blood cells, will then be returned to Lockwood’s body through his other arm.
‘The procedure’s going to (last) between six and eight hours,? he said.
If, for some reason, the blood-forming cells aren’t able to be collected from Lockwood via this method, then the only other option is a bone marrow donation, a surgical procedure usually done on an outpatient basis.
It involves using a needle to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of a donor’s pelvic bone.
Lockwood is so committed to being a donor and helping this woman he’s never met that he’s willing to undergo the marrow harvest if necessary.
‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,? he said. ‘If I can give her an extra five years of her life, that’s great.?
A co-worker pointed out to Lockwood, he’s not just potentially giving her five more years, he’s giving her five more Christmases, five more birthdays and five more Easters to spend with her family and make memories.
It was also pointed out to Lockwood that he’s potentially giving this woman five more years of opportunities to be there for the major events in her grandchildren’s lives, from births to graduations.
‘You’re giving everybody involved five years,? he said.
Those wishing to join the Be the Match Registry must between the ages of 18 and 60, meet medical eligibility guidelines and be willing to donate to any patient in need.
People between the ages of 18 and 44 are encouraged to join the registry because, according to the group’s website, medical research shows younger donors provide ‘the greatest chance for transplant success? and doctors request donors in this age group more than 90 percent of the time.
There’s no cost for people in the 18-44 age group to join the registry.
People between the ages of 45 and 60 are welcome to join, but they must make a $100 tax-deductible payment to cover their cost.
Folks who are 61 and older cannot join the registry because the chances of complications arising from medical procedures increase as people age.
Registering for Be the Match is easy, simple, safe and painless.
Folks can do it by filling out a consent form and having the inside of their cheeks swabbed to collect cells for tissue typing.
Joining the registry means making a commitment to stay on the list until age 61 (unless a donor asks to be removed); respond quickly if contacted as a potential match for a patient; donate to any searching patient for whom you’re a match; and keep the program updated with regard to contact information changes, significant health changes or a change of heart about being a donor.
Be the Match makes it clear that donating is ‘always voluntary? and registry members have the right to change their mind at any time.