Robbin Ray
Countless people with leukemia are stuck hoping for the miracle of a match for a bone marrow transplant. Nearly 70 percent have to look beyond their family for that match and as 7Healthcast reporter Janet Wu shows us, the donation may start of anonymous, but doesn't always stay that way.
The Irving's love spending time together and the bond of this tightly knit family has really been tested. Seven years ago Ian Irving spent Christmas in the hospital with pneumonia. But blood tests brought more devastating news.
Ian Irving
"He basically diagnosed me there and then with leukemia."
Ian had CML, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Life expectancy, without a bone marrow transplant, is five to six years.
David Irving, Ian's Son
"I really prepared myself for my dad to die… I loved him with all my heart and I was going to be by his side, but I was still faced with the reality that something could happen."
Doctors tried medications, but eventually the leukemia got worse.
Diane Irving, Ian's Wife
"It broke my heart because I could just see him dying in front of me."
Ian needed a bone marrow transplant, but no one in Ian's family was a match. His only hope -- an anonymous donor.
Doctor
"In general an individual patient has about a 30 percent chance of having a family donor."
In January of 2002, Ian found a match. He had a mini-transplant using donor stem cells. For the donor, it's like donating blood, for the recipient, it means a chance for life.
Doctor
"In life we don't have the opportunity too frequently to be heroes… Being a marrow or stem cell donor is an opportunity to directly save someone's life."
Recipients and donors must remain anonymous for 365 days. So for the next year, the only contact was a card.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with you. -Your bone marrow donor."
But when the year was up, both agreed to meet. This past January, Ian Irving finally talked to his donor, a 29-year-old from North Carolina.
Bryan Speigelberg, Donor
"Just to hear his voice was, it was just indescribable… I smiled for a week after that."
Phone calls and e-mails continued until this month, Bryan and his wife Susan flew to Boston to stay with the Irvings.
Bryan Speigelberg
"It was so comfortable just seeing them… I felt like they were family."
The two families spent the next several days sightseeing and getting to know each other better. But what makes this meeting even more special -- Ian is now in remission.
Diane Irving
"By all standards he was suppose to be long gone, and he isn't."
The Irvings credit Bryan, but Bryan says it was nothing compared to Ian's ordeal. For all it was a selfless act that will never be forgotten.
Ian Irving
"I basically owe him my life."
We should note that there are two ways to donate, blood stem cells, which Ian needed, and traditional bone marrow donations, which require a little more surgery.
Doctors say after two years of being in remission Ian has a 90 to 95 percent chance of being cured.
For more information on how to become at donor:
