Defying odds, Jews find genetic match continents away
American Jewish stem cell donor is guest at recipient’s chuppah in Australia
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SYDNEY, Australia – An American Jew whose stem cells saved the life of an Australian Jew diagnosed with life-threatening leukemia was guest of honor at his wedding in Sydney.
Michael Striegold, 38, from Houston, Texas, was in the front row to witness Michael Faust marry Jackie Antico under the chuppah overlooking Sydney Harbor last week.
A decade earlier, in 2004, Striegold was at a Jewish function in San Francisco when he decided to test for the Gift of Life registry, an organization dedicated to finding matches for Jews with life-threatening stem cell, bone marrow and transplants problems.
For Michael Faust, 33, it was literally a lifeline, after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia at the age of 23. “I was totally devastated that someone my age could be diagnosed with cancer,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in an article published on Sunday.
The pair now meet up each year. “For me, a stranger, to have a second family is overwhelming,” Striegold said.
“I now have another brother,” Faust responded.
Shula Endrey-Walder told J-Wire, a local Jewish website, that there are four more Jews in desperate need of a transplant; Jews are much more likely to find a match within their own ethnic group.
Still, she said, it’s a long shot: “The likelihood of finding a match in the Jewish community is 1 in 10,000.”
The Times of Israel Community.