(Photo Credit: Amy Glanzman/Gift of Life Marrow Registry)
The Miami Marlins recently honored three Gift of Life Marrow Registry donors who reside in South Florida for their heroics in helping to save people with blood cancer and other diseases.
At the game between the Marlins and Atlanta Braves, the team held a special pregame on-field ceremony to publicly recognize and thank Matthew Hocherman of Boca Raton, Jessica Donner of Weston, and Ari Ciment of Miami. Gift of Life also conducted a donor recruitment drive, asking people to do a simple cheek swab to join the registry.
Hocherman, a two-time marrow donor, joined the registry six years ago and urged everyone to join. During the ceremony, the public-address announcer said to the crowd, on behalf of Hocherman, “Every life if important. You could save someone’s mother or father, or grandparent, or child.”
Donner joined the marrow registry in 2011 while attending the University of Florida. Three years later, she donated stem cells to a 19-year-old man battling leukemia, helping cure him.
Ciment, who joined the registry in 2002, donated stem cells to a woman battling severe aplastic anemia.
For more information on bone marrow and stem cell transplants or to order a donor kit online visit, www.giftoflife.org.
