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With tears in their eyes, Pete Johnson and Ramabele Tsolo stood frozen, soaking in the significance of the moment.
On stage at an event in June in South Africa, Johnson and Tsolo embraced, clinging tightly to each other. Tsolo buried his face in Johnson’s shoulder and sobbed. As they released each other, smiles broke through the tears.
The crowd clapped and cheered as the donor and recipient met face-to-face for the first time at a donor registry conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
For years, the pair had been connected through a rare bond: Johnson’s stem cell donation years ago had saved Tsolo’s life.
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Johnson, a 62-year-old Air Force veteran and minister, hoped the stem cells he donated would save a life someday. After more than 20 years, his wish came true.
In 1996, Johnson joined the U.S. National Donor Program, led by a desire to do good in the world.
He found his purpose in service, a desire to make a meaningful difference.
“That’s the way my mom raised me,” he said. “She made sure that we do good for others.”
Johnson got a call from NMDP in early 2019 asking if he was willing to be a stem cell donor.
“I felt blown away by the fact that it had been so many years that I had almost forgotten that I had even signed up for the program,” he said.
After undergoing a five-day regimen of injections to boost his cell’s production, Johnson successfully donated his stem cells.
According to NMDP, a stem cell is an immature cell that can grow into many different cell types, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Stem cells have the potential to renew themselves.
Cell donation involves a regimen of injections of a drug called filgrastim to increase the number of blood-forming stem cells in the bloodstream before the donation, according to Erica Sevilla, an NMDP spokesperson.
On the donation day, blood is drawn from a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that extracts only the stem cells, while the remaining blood is returned to the body through a needle in the other arm.
In early 2019, Johnson learned he was a match for a leukemia patient. But he did not receive further details until April that Tsolo, 28, would be the recipient, whom he would be traveling to meet in June.
Johnson and his wife embarked on the 15-hour flight to South Africa, which became a challenging trip for him due to his age. “I’m not as young as I used to be,” Johnson said.
Tsolo and Johnson now keep in touch with each other via WhatsApp. The messaging tool has helped them to talk at least once a week with each other, allowing them to create a close relationship that extends to Tsolo’s family.
“The young man calls himself my son now,” Johnson said. “Now I have an African son. My wife was right there and she was okay with that.”
To join as a donor you can visit https://my.nmdp.org/dallasdonor
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