Hello WUUC! My name is Emily Kuo-Lillie. I am married to Rev. Dan Lillie. I am thrilled to share a bit of my journey that led me to becoming a bone marrow donor and now a donor care coordinator with the National Marrow Donor Program, also known as Be The Match.
After graduating from nursing school in 2014, I began working at a pediatric hospital in Denver. While I cared for a wide variety of patients, I quickly found my love for pediatric hematology and oncology nursing. This very special patient population inspired me to join the Be The Match Registry. With a simple cheek swab you are placed on the registry with the hopes that someday you could answer the call to help a patient with a life-threatening blood cancer or other type of blood disorder. I was also moved to join when I learned that people of color have a significantly lower chance of finding a bone marrow donor because of a lack of diversity on the registry.
In July 2020, I got that life-changing call that there was a child in need of a bone marrow transplant, and I was their match! At the time our daughter Natalie was just 5 months old and we were about to move to Washington so Dan could begin working as your minister. Thankfully, Be The Match was able to arrange my donation here with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. My short surgery was a major success, and the team was able to collect all the healthy stem cells my young recipient needed. That same day a courier traveled by plane, train, and automobile to deliver my cells to the other side of the world.
I was so moved by my donation experience and the exceptional care I received that I applied to work as a donor care coordinator with Be The Match in October 2021. Now I get to help other donors prepare for their donations and advocate for their needs. I keep my former pediatric patients and my bone marrow recipient close to my heart as I do this work. It is an honor to take part in this life-saving work!
There are a few major misconceptions that I wish to clear up about Be The Match. First, more than 80% of donations do not require surgery but instead involve 5 days of medication follow by an apheresis procedure similar to donating plasma. The less common surgical procedure takes about 90 minutes, the pain is minimal, and most donors fully recover within a couple weeks.
While only 0.3% of individuals on the registry go on to donate, all 12.5 million members of the registry are incredible symbols of hope. Joining the registry is free and easy, and even if you do not donate, perhaps you will inspire someone else to join the registry who does match with a patient. As a Unitarian Universalist and humanist, I believe we are all on this Earth to find ways to support and help one another as we journey through life. Please reach out to me if you have any questions about Be The Match or visit www.bethematch.org to learn more!