5 minute read
Faces of MAC: Jessica Meyer
MAC member Jessica Meyer survived six bone-marrow biopsies around the time of her transplant on July 15, 2014, which like many survivors, she considers her “re-birthday.” That’s in addition to a whole lot of chemotherapy and 60 days of living in a sterile home environment. Even her kids had to rigorously disinfect just to be in her presence. One hundred days after the transplant, her body had adjusted to the new bone marrow without life-threatening complications, and her blood type had changed from O to B.
If she could endure all of that to beat blood cancer, the six minutes it takes for members ages 18 to 55 to get their cheeks swabbed and join the national registry is infinitesimal by comparison. Should they turn out to be a match for someone else fighting the same battle Meyer did, their paltry interlude could turn into a lifetime for the recipient of their generous gift.
To make it even easier, members don’t have to leave the club to make a profound difference. Just stop by the DKMS booth at the MAC Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20. DKMS is an international nonprofit dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and disorders, and Meyer’s been working with the organization for nine years now.
“They make it so easy,” she says. “DKMS provides the kits and all the materials to join. Even if you’re identified as a donor, it happens in phases, so it’s not like you get a call tomorrow and have to donate on Saturday. Plus, whenever it happens, they pay for everything. If you have to fly somewhere or miss work, it’s covered! The first step is to join the registry.”
Meyer worked with DKMS to hold MAC’s first donor-registration drive last summer, resulting in 75 members signing up. The important role that the club’s emphasis on health and well-being has played in her life made it a natural fit. Formerly an avid participant in Early Birds activities, she has been playing tennis recently in her continuous pursuit of fitness. Meyer says it was that dedication to staying active that first helped her spot the signs of blood cancer.
“I was super fit and running a lot, and it might sound strange, but I lost a minute off of my mile,” she recalls. Meyer had started to feel weaker and got a couple of infections that were out of the ordinary — signs of a fragile immune system. “From there, I had my first three bone-marrow biopsies, which are horrible! The third one was when they found the disease. At that point, it had been aggressive enough that I got diagnosed in March and went to transplant in July.”
The first donor drive Meyer witnessed was organized by her close friends through their parish, and it resulted in close to 200 registrations, out of which one person was a match. That individual then flew to San Diego and saved a life. Since then, Meyer’s friends and their kids have worked with four local high schools to expand their reach. Meanwhile, it turned out that one of Meyer’s brothers was a match for her, meaning the work they did to register candidates for possible donation ultimately paid it forward to others in need.
“This is the best, most awesome thing,” Meyer says of her own fortunes, the continuing drives, and feeling she gets from helping others in the fights of their lives. Roughly 70% of the time, patients don’t have a human leukocyte antigens (HLA) match among their family and have to turn to the national registry for help. “I got really lucky,” she adds, especially because of her Hawaiian ancestry. Turns out those of western European descent are statistically far more likely to match with an anonymous donor.
“On the donor side, it’s very safe. If you are called on to be a match, most of the time it’s like giving blood. In 30% of cases, it could mean getting marrow removed from your hip, but it’s a low-risk procedure and you’re under anesthesia.”
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Meyer says that she doesn’t necessarily have a goal for how many people she hopes to register at MAC, but given the convenience to members, her hopes are high while her expectations remain reasonable.
“In my mind, if you get one new person to join the registry, then that’s one more person who could potentially be a lifesaver. My goal is just to get my fellow members to join. The follow-up is that, if you’re identified as a donor, you say yes to doing it. I don’t like to get ahead of myself because the odds are you’ll never be called.” With odds like that versus the potential rewards of giving someone like Meyer their life back, who wouldn’t take that bet?
