Graduate Student serves as Bone Marrow Donor

Mandeep Gill, a graduate student in particle physics and one of our top physics teaching assistants, recently underwent a procedure at Stanford Hospital to donate bone marrow. Mandeep joined the bone marrow database about a year ago, after hearing about the critical need for marrow donors to help save the lives of leukemia patients. Although it is extremely rare to find an appropriate match between marrow donor and patient, a series of blood tests revealed that he was a good match for a 48 year old patient with acute leukemia. Mandeep describes the experience as extremely worthwhile, although he did undergo some (tolerable) pain and fatigue for a few days following the procedure. (The donor's marrow completely replaces itself within a few weeks.) Mandeep felt honored to be a donor and to have the rare opportunity to make a real difference to someone in ill health, calling it "a perfect application of the Golden Rule: If I were sick, I would most certainly hope that someone would do the same for me." Needless to say, we are proud of Mandeep, and encourage anyone who is interested in joining the marrow donation program to visit the Web page of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP): http://www.marrow.org. or call Diane Hill at 415-723-5532 for additional information.

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