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Freund to Meet Bone Marrow Donor
Posted 5/14/2007
On Tuesday, May 15, Richard Freund, director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, will meet for the very first time the stranger who saved his life. The two will meet on stage at the Seventh Annual Partners for Life Gala of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, which will take place at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.
In January 2004, Freund was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia after returning home from an excavation in Israel. He learned immediately that he would need a bone marrow transplant to survive. When none of his family members was a close enough match to donate, Freund hoped that a donor could be found on an international registry of volunteers. A donor was quickly identified in Gift of Life’s Registry, and Freund received his transplant and recovered.
By law, the transplant must be anonymous. Donors and recipients are permitted to correspond through letters that are screened for identifying information, and if both parties agree, they may meet once a full year has passed since the transplant. On Tuesday, Freund will meet his donor at the Partners for Life Gala in front of more than 600 guests, including donors, recipients, volunteers, and financial supporters of the organization.
Gift of Life facilitates bone marrow, blood stem cell and umbilical cord blood transplants for children and adults suffering from life-threatening illnesses around the world. Its services include transplant coordination, donor recruitment, patient advocacy, and public education. Through targeted recruitment in Jewish communities throughout North America, Gift of Life strives to overcome the loss of bloodlines following the Holocaust, a consequence that has made the search for genetically matched donors particularly difficult for Jewish patients.
The annual Partners for Life Gala is Gift of Life’s premier event, and the largest gathering of donors and recipients in the nation.
For more information, please contact Jody T. Greenspon at jgreenspon@giftoflife.org or 561.988.0100, ext. 28.
In January 2004, Freund was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia after returning home from an excavation in Israel. He learned immediately that he would need a bone marrow transplant to survive. When none of his family members was a close enough match to donate, Freund hoped that a donor could be found on an international registry of volunteers. A donor was quickly identified in Gift of Life’s Registry, and Freund received his transplant and recovered.
By law, the transplant must be anonymous. Donors and recipients are permitted to correspond through letters that are screened for identifying information, and if both parties agree, they may meet once a full year has passed since the transplant. On Tuesday, Freund will meet his donor at the Partners for Life Gala in front of more than 600 guests, including donors, recipients, volunteers, and financial supporters of the organization.
Gift of Life facilitates bone marrow, blood stem cell and umbilical cord blood transplants for children and adults suffering from life-threatening illnesses around the world. Its services include transplant coordination, donor recruitment, patient advocacy, and public education. Through targeted recruitment in Jewish communities throughout North America, Gift of Life strives to overcome the loss of bloodlines following the Holocaust, a consequence that has made the search for genetically matched donors particularly difficult for Jewish patients.
The annual Partners for Life Gala is Gift of Life’s premier event, and the largest gathering of donors and recipients in the nation.
For more information, please contact Jody T. Greenspon at jgreenspon@giftoflife.org or 561.988.0100, ext. 28.
