Cameron Lyle Ended His Athletic Career to Save the Life of a Young Man with Leukemia-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
Cameron Lyle, a student athlete at the University of New Hampshire, ended his track and field career so he could donate bone marrow to a stranger with leukemia.
The Truth:
Cameron Lyle was a shot put thrower at the University of New Hampshire who cut his career short to save the life of a young man with leukemia who he’d never before.
Lyle’s story appeared on social media and in numerous publications shortly after he had the bone marrow procedure in April 2013.
Lyle told the Boston Globe he had his cheek swabbed for the National Marrow Donor Program’s “Be the Match” campaign during his sophomore year.
“They said I was a possible match. And I admit it was kind of frightening for a few minutes,” Lyle said. “But I had made up my mind when I did the mouth swab and joined the registry that if it happened I would donate. Otherwise, why bother registering?”
Each year 12,000 blood cancer patients need bone marrow or umbilical cord transplants, and 70 percent of them don’t have donor matches within their family must rely on Be the Mach’s registry of 10.5 million potential donors, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.
The odds of a donor being a match for a patient are about one in 5 million.
That makes it even more unusual that Lyle isn’t the only member of the University of New Hampshire track and field team who has donated marrow to a perfect stranger. Catie Perrella announced donated bone marrow to a perfect stranger the week after the track season ended in 2011.
Posted 04/07/14