Blood stem call recipient meets donor in Boca Raton

A 66-year-old man from Boca Raton on Monday night met his blood stem cell donor, a 22-year-old man from Los Angeles.

Mitchell Stern, who survived myelodysplastic disorder, a type of blood cancer, met his donor, Raphael Eidelman at a Gift of Life Marrow Registry event at the Boca Raton Marriott at Boca Center

Raphael, joined Gift of Life’s registry at a donor recruitment event by Gift of Life Campus Ambassadors in 2019 at California State University.

The Gift of Life Campus Ambassador Symposium brought together student interns who represent Gift of Life’s mission at more than 100 colleges and universities nationwide.

Since it was started in 2015, the Campus Ambassador Program has added nearly 95,000 new donors to Gift of Life’s registry, who have completed 450 lifesaving transplants to date.

Another reunion also was conducted in Boca Raton on July 24.

Adam LeBlanc, a 21-year-old Florida Atlantic University student from Fort Lauderdale, saved the life of a 15-year-old boy, Michael Johnson, who has survived two forms of leukemia and Fanconi anemia, a rare disease affecting mainly the bone marrow.