Believe in Better: Employee joins Bone Marrow Donor Program, becomes match

Back in 2019, Ashley Castro-Morera, an Employee Relations Consultant, saw a booth looking for donors to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Donor Program (formerly known as, “Be the Match”).

Wanting to support the cause, she took a kit, completed a cheek swab and added her genetic makeup to the global registry, not knowing if she’d ever actually become a match for someone in need.

“I have a cousin with leukemia and several family members who did not survive their go-around with different types of cancer,” she said. “So, putting my name on the list to potentially help someone never felt like a great sacrifice.”

Six years went by, and in August of this year, she received the long-awaited call.

“I was confirmed as a match for someone in Spain who needed a peripheral blood stem cell donation,” Castro-Morera said. “The person has lymphoma and was getting ready to do a radiation treatment that would result in needing the donation in order to have a successful recovery.”

Castro-Morera said she went through the pre-approval process, started Filgrastim injections on Sept. 11, and donated on Sept. 15.

Now she’s hoping her donation inspires others.

“My donation was in honor of loved ones that could have benefited if they had received this type of treatment for cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, etc.,” Castro-Morera said. “I wanted to help in any way possible, so that someone’s family could get more time with their loved one.”

For more insight on the process, Castro-Morera said the physical donation process usually takes between four and six hours, though hers took three. She called the process well-organized and said the program took “every chance to make (me) feel valued and appreciated.”

She explained that a nurse came to her house daily for the injections and the program arranged all travel plans to the final donation facility in Denver for her and her spouse.

Castro-Morera finished her story with a quote from Kahlil Gibran: “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Learn more about the National Bone Marrow Donation Program here.