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FRIDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A assemblage before Jim Munroe was diagnosed with a thin and battleful form of leukemia, a 19-year-old girl from metropolis had her cheek swabbed at a summer sway concert.

She ended up saving Munroe's chronicle by decent his pearl goody donor.

Munroe, 31, of Colleyville, Texas, said he started opinion displeased in late November 2008. His nous hurt a lot, and he began to feel very lethargic.

"I matured a rattling unbearable discompose in my handicap that they initially diagnosed as a murder clot," Munroe said. The discompose kept increasing, even after Munroe started taking a blood-thinning medication, so doctors performed more tests and observed that he had leukemia.

"The pearl in my handicap was symptom because of the turn of albescent murder cells existence produced in my marrow," he said. "The student said if it went on, the pearl would break on its own."

Doctors at the M.D. Anderson person Center in metropolis recommended aggressive treatment. Munroe said he was told that he could die in threesome or four months if nothing was finished and that, with his identify of leukemia, chances of a relapse were 99 percent, even if he went into remission.

What he necessary was a pearl goody transplant. "I necessary to hit my immune system completely replaced," Munroe said. "I necessary to hit it re-booted, essentially, and I necessary to hit someone else's flourishing albescent blood cells to replace my own."

Munroe's doctors sent his DNA to the national pearl goody registry, hoping to find a suitable donor. They settled 16 possible genetic matches for him, from 7 million people in the registry, and asked the potential donors to come in for boost testing.

"With this portion transplant, they necessary to find someone in the world whose DNA matching mine so dead that my embody would discern their insusceptible cells as existence O.K.," he said.

One of the donors matching perfectly. "They institute discover she was what doctors call a 10 discover of 10 match, which is about the best you can hope for," Munroe said.

The young woman had subscribed up for the registry at a Warped journeying concert, inspired by one of her favorite musicians who had gotten a goody donation from his sister, Munroe after learned.

She took drug to boost her marrow's production of stem cells, and five chronicle after had murder drawn and the excess stem cells filtered off. After she had the murder drawn, she had a tattoo finished at the needle's entry point to signify the piece of herself she'd presented away, Munroe said.

In the meantime, doctors had gotten Munroe's cancer into referral through chemotherapy. They then blasted his insusceptible system with chemotherapy to educate him for the transplant. Munroe had to be kept in isolation for a month during the process, to protect him from infection.

"On the tenth day, they brought her murder into my hospital shack and began to drip it into my IV," he said. "They sit there rattling patiently for the prototypal hour. The prototypal distance is a good sign of whether the embody module accept or reject what's existence put into it. Their hope is the newborn flourishing white murder cells module eat up the old nasty system you had."

The infix took, although Munroe said that his embody is ease recuperating from the experience.

A assemblage after the transplant, Munroe scholarly the identity of his donor. He reached discover to her through Facebook to impart her. They've been corresponding ever since, and he said he hopes to meet her soon.

"I sent her an e-mail and said, 'Look, you ransomed my life,'" Munroe said. "'You ransomed my spouse from existence a widow. You ransomed my children from being fatherless. You are a hero of ours.'"

More information

A consort article on donating murder and meat offers more on what's involved.

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