Ailing College Student Brings

‘Be The Match’ To Cooperstown 

COOPERSTOWN – Stephanie Talaia-Murray was diagnosed with leukemia in the fall of last year. The 21-year-old geology major at Hamilton College was stunned by the news from her doctor at Bassett Hospital.

“I had some facial lesions that prompted me to make an appointment to get checked out,” recalls Talaia-Murray.  “It was during my treatment for the skin problem that a blood test showed my white blood cell count was quite low. However, I never expected a leukemia diagnosis. There’s no family history and I felt fine.”

Every four minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia. Most patients need a marrow or stem cell transplant to survive. That’s how Stephanie and her family learned about the “Be The Match” Registry, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, which provides doctors with access to nearly 24.5 million possible donors.

Stephanie’s experience has prompted friends of the family to bring “Be The Match” 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, to the Bassett Clinic on River Street. People can learn more about how to become a donor and put their name on the registry.

“No one in my family was a match,” says Talaia-Murray. “However, through the registry my doctor was able to locate a perfect match. All I know is that she is a 24 year old nurse.” That small amount of information is meaningful to Talaia-Murray and her family because Stephanie’s mom is a nurse educator in Bassett’s intensive care unit.

As a result of Bassett’s relationship with University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), Stephanie received her chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant there in February and March of this year, and she continues to travel to URMC for follow up each week. Full recovery from the effects of treatment can take a year or more.

In the meantime, she hopes to eventually meet her stem cell donor and is and helping to raise awareness of the need for marrow/stem cell donors. The goal of the Be the Match drive April 13 at Bassett is to educate people about the need for donors and add as many qualifying individuals as possible to the Be The Match Registry.

• A potential marrow/stem cell donor needs to be 18 to 44 years of age
• In general good health
• Willing to donate to any person in need
• The entire process to be added to the registry takes only 10 minutes

“Before my diagnosis, I never knew much about this kind of donation and how many people need stem cells or marrow because they’re battling blood cancer,” says Talaia-Murray. “The process is fairly simple and I’ve learned that in some states and other countries, everyone is automatically an organ donor unless they opt out.”  Given the need and shortage of donors of all kinds, she thinks it’s something New York State should give more consideration to.

As it happens, the first bone marrow transplant in history occurred at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in the 1950s. Bassett physicians Dr. Joseph W. Ferrebee, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, Dr. Theodore Peters, Jr., and Dr. David A. Blumenstock transfused the marrow from a healthy twin to a twin with leukemia in 1956. In 1990, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his pioneering transplantation work, which led to the successful treatment of leukemia.