Steve Collins And Tonya Ghant:

Charlotte Man Grants Leukemia Patient's Christmas Wish

He donated marrow to save the life of a dying stranger.
Now he meets the woman he saved.

Tonya wasn't feeling well. She was getting sicker by the day. After a week of extreme illness and severe weight loss, the doctors diagnosed leukemia. She was admitted to the hospital immediately. She needed a volunteer donor for her life-saving marrow transplant.

"All I wanted for Christmas that year was a volunteer donor for my transplant, so that I could live," Tonya said. A few days after Christmas, Tonya's wish came true when a search of the NMDP Registry identified a donor. The donor was Steve. Tonya received her transplant in March 1997 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. She is now living a healthy life in Tampa, Fla., and enjoys raising her 5-year-old daughter Arianna. "Steve gave Arianna her mommy back," Tonya said.

Tonya finally met Steve for the very first time at an emotional ceremony last month during the Unity '99 convention in Seattle. (The photos on this page were taken at that event. In the photo at the top, Steve Collins and Tonya Ghant meet for the first time - soon they were both in a big embrace. The bottom photo shows Mrs. and Mr. Collins, Tonya Ghant, her mother and her daughter Arianna, and Ione Terrio and Monica Schiller from the NMDP.)

After the marrow collection was over, Steve reflected on his life-saving gift. "God had given us all a chance to make a difference in someone's life. This is just one way of many. I felt that this was a calling from God. I knew in my heart I had to help," Steve said. "I gave from the heart and I feel blessed in return," he said. "I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. But you know, I still don't like needles."

Marrow transplants require matching certain tissue traits of the donor and patient. Because these traits are inherited, an African American donor such as Steve will most likely match another African American. Although it is possible for an African American volunteer donor to match a patient from any racial or ethnic group, the most likely match is an African American. Steve and Tonya are African American. More volunteer donors are needed, especially minorities, so others can have a second chance at life.

Created in 1986, the Minneapolis-based NMDP is a non-profit organization with a network of 350 affiliates. The NMDP facilitates unrelated marrow and blood stem cell transplants for patients with life-threatening blood diseases by recruiting volunteer marrow donors, maintaining a Registry of more than 3.6 million volunteer donors and offering patient services,while also conducting research to further the field of unrelated marrow transplantation.