Sort of my son. After ten years, the cell donor met the man whose life she saved

He received the oncological diagnosis in 2012. That’s when he returned from the Himalayas and his forearm started to hurt excruciatingly. “I couldn’t stand it, so I drove to Bulovka. I thought I had some kind of alien that I had imported from abroad,” says Tomáš.

But the examination showed problems with the blood. After further analyses, it became clear that it was acute leukemia. Tomáš underwent demanding chemotherapy that lasted almost a year. “I completed six cycles. I was in the hospital for a month, at home for a month,” he outlines.

The treatment seemed to work. But not long after, the doctor informed him that the leukemia had returned. “The first time I thought I was going to blow it. But the second time, I already knew what I was getting into,” he continues.

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However, his situation was complicated by an accident on a quad bike, when he broke his pelvis. “I felt threatened at that moment. Plus I didn’t have a lot of platelets. In the end, I spent three months in a wheelchair,” he describes.

And his health was rapidly deteriorating. “Leukemia has taken off in a big way,” he adds. In June 2014, great news came – doctors found a suitable donor of hematopoietic cells. “It was the luck of my life,” he notes.

Ivana entered the register already in the nineties. “It was due to youthful indiscretion,” jokes the modest woman. Perhaps only her co-worker, with whom she went to the Klatovské hospital, knew about her decision.

At that time, mobile phones and the Internet were not yet widely available. “She only gave her address. So when the registry searched for her ten years ago, he had no other contact for her. That’s why he sent her a letter. Even though she hasn’t moved,” smiles Tomáš.

As soon as Ivana read the challenge, she immediately responded. Doctors subsequently determined that she was a suitable donor. “I was glad that I could help. I only knew that it was a young boy from the Czech Republic. Because I don’t know a foreign language, I thought to myself, that’s fine, our blood will surely get along well,” jokes the 57-year-old woman.

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She entered the hospital, where her blood-forming cells were removed using a device – a so-called separator. “It’s not painful. You can think of it as a long blood draw that took about four hours,” he explains. All the while, she had no idea if the recipient had survived. It wasn’t until last summer that she received an anonymous letter of thanks. Even in this case, she didn’t tell anyone about him.

Then she nodded to see Tomáš for the first time. The meeting was organized by the Czech National Register of Marrow Donors and took place recently in Prague’s Municipal House. As Ivana says, there was a lot of hype around it because she came out of anonymity and spoke in front of a full hall and journalists. “I didn’t need to tell anyone. I don’t take it as something extra. But with the passage of time I realize what actually happened. It’s probably an exaggeration to say that Tomáš is a bit like my son,” he compares.

The forty-year-old man agrees with her. He is grateful to have recovered, is taking no medication and is playing sports again. “I am a happy person who is doing well. My girlfriend and I are talking about children. So the story has a happy course so far,” he concludes.

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