PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- For one family in Maine, it's been a long two years since their father received a leukemia diagnosis.
Stephen Trabold went to the hospital with severe stomach pains in February 2016. When doctors told him he had leukemia they sent him to Boston for treatment that day. Trabold was seeking a bone marrow transplant when he was connected with a man in Germany. He never met his donor and has no way to get in touch with him. Trabold said that man saved his life.
Trabold's daughters hosted a bone marrow drive on Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at The Iris Network on Park Ave. They are looking to sign-up potential donors through Be The Match.
Testing to see if you are a potential donor is pain-free. A cotton swab inside the mouth for 8-10 seconds is all it takes. New techniques make it even easier, and less painful, to donate if you are a match. A more common non-surgical procedure is similar to donating blood platelets. It's called peripheral blood stem cell donation or PBSC. The other is a surgical procedure that takes place in an operating room.
According to Be The Match, 14,000 patients per year are waiting for a transplant from someone outside of their family.
