For Megan, the decision to donate came as simply as another day on the job.
“A week of discomfort was nothing to help a kid have a normal life. I would do it 100 more times. The week off work wasn’t bad either.”
Megan is a former TV News reporter and one day while working in Lansing, Michigan, she was covering a story about a young boy in Mason, Michigan who needed a bone marrow transplant. His loved ones held a drive to get more people on the registry and Megan was there, going live in multiple shows at the event. One of her live shots, she swabbed on live TV to show people watching at home how easy it was to do.
When the cameras were off, one of the organizers asked if she wanted to send the sample to get on the registry, Megan figured, “why not?” and filled out the form and sent it off.
A few years later, in the spring of 2020, Megan (now living in Colorado) received a phone call from a number she didn’t recognize. Having just applied to go on the TV show the Bachelor, she picked it up. But on the other line wasn’t ABC, it was a different acronym: DKMS! The person on the other line told Megan she was potentially a match for a boy with a rare cancer. They asked if she was still interested in donating. Megan was shocked, as she forgot she even signed up to be in the registry, but jumped at the chance to help a kid in need.
After a few months of tests, Megan and her mom flew to Chicago for the surgery. Everything went well and she was able to fly home to Colorado the next day. Megan was back at work, lugging around a camera and a tripod the next week.
Today, Megan has some contact with the family of the boy she donated bone marrow to. According to his mom, he is in remission, off all his medication, and is even in Boy Scouts.
Megan is hoping more people (besides her friends and family she made sign up) will think about joining the registry.
“A week of discomfort was nothing to help a kid have a normal life. I would do it 100 more times. The week off work wasn’t bad either.”
DKMS Contact Person
