Charlie Shoup felt called to donate after receiving a call he wasn’t expecting.
The 2015 Loyola Marymount University graduate waited three years to receive a phone call telling him he might be a bone marrow match in March of his senior year.
“Out of all the students that register, each year only one or sometimes none get chosen. I thought that it would be amazing to get picked but I was warned not to get my hopes up.”
In Fall of 2012, Shoup attended an LMU Blood and Bone Marrow Drive hosted by the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center, the City of Hope, LMU’s Center for Service and Action, and the Crimson Circle Service Organization. Intending to donate blood, Shoup was disappointed when he was rejected due to his past residency out of the country and potential exposure to mad cow disease.
Although rejected from donating blood, he visited a table labeled “Be the Match” for the National Bone Marrow Registry. He sat down with the City of Hope representative and had the inside of his mouth swabbed.
Based on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing, the odds of two unrelated people having compatible bone marrow is less than 1 percent. For the small percentage of those called as potential donors, a significant percentage decline to donate or forget due to the prolonged period.
Shoup, a 22-year-old Chicago resident, could not disclose too much about the older man who would be receiving the bone marrow stem cells filtered from his blood.
Upon graduating from LMU, Shoup received the follow-up call at home in Chicago requesting that he come in immediately as time was becoming an issue. Not one hour earlier, he had received a call from an employer offering him a position in Los Angeles. Overwhelmed that his first real job aligned with more bone marrow testing, he contacted human resources at his new company to request a delayed start date by two weeks.
“I was ready to hear, ‘I'm sorry but that doesn't work. We need to find someone to start working immediately.’ But human resources and my new supervisor were very understanding and granted me the extra time.”
Within the week, the City of Hope flew Shoup in for an all-day meeting with physicians and an extensive physical including, blood samples, urine samples, an ECG, and chest x-rays.
“I can't speak enough about the City of Hope,” he said, “they run a very tight ship and do some amazing things.”
Leading up to the procedure Shoup received several injections of Neupogen to spark white blood cell growth in his bones to be released in his bloodstream.
The biggest misconception about bone marrow transplants is that it requires surgery. Similar to a bone marrow biopsy, which many blood cancer patients undergo, the old procedure to donating bone marrow was using a needle through the hip bone and extracting several cups of liquid.
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| Fluids, bone marrow stem cells, blood, and the filtering machine pictured here during Shoup's donation. |
Today, in most transplants, the stem cells are retrieved through the donor’s bloodstream. On the fifth day of his Neupogen injections, Shoup was hooked up to a machine that drew blood out of the his arm to be filtered and then put back into his other arm. Six hours later, Shoup’s donation was transported on an airplane and delivered to the recipient within 24 hours.
A month after the procedure, Shoup will be updated on the older gentleman’s status and every two months thereafter. If in a year, the recovery processes well, he might be able to meet the man in person.
“It’s been a great reason to reflect on my own life,” Shoup said. “I was given the chance to do an amazing thing.”
“I didn't feel brave or anything like that. I didn't feel like I was doing much at all. Although I didn't know much about this man, I did think he had the right to improve his odds at living. So I think it would have been irresponsible for me not to do it.”
Special thanks to...
Crimson Alumni Charlie Shoup, The City of Hope, LMU University Relations Writer/Editor John Kissell, The Center for Service and Action, and Assistant Director of Campus Service Tom King
Written by Matthew Sugidono c/o '15
Drive dates are set for October 7th - 9th 2015
Also you can sign up for the Bone Marrow Registry with the City of Hope at the drive!
Visit Be the Match to learn more about the National Bone Marrow Registry!
