by Eboni Nash’s mother Teresa describes her daughter as “selfless” and “pitiful.”
“I saw her give up her last dollar to a cause that a friend of hers needed,” she said in a video made by Be The Match for The National Marrow Donor Program, an organization that facilitates blood stem cell transplants and maintains a donor program.
It was that selflessness that led her to donate bone marrow to a stranger, a potentially life-saving decision that led to an emotional reunion years later.
Nash submitted a DNA sample to the Be The Match program for the first time in 2020, according to the organization, to determine if she would be a match to donate bone marrow to a patient in need.
For the past 11 years, “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts has reported extensively on bone marrow transplants after undergoing a successful transplant herself in 2012. Last year, “GMA” partnered with “Be The Match” as part of the “One Match, Second Chance” to continue raising awareness of how to participate in bone marrow donation.
Elsewhere in 2020, Amya Hood, now 16, was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia after experiencing persistent nosebleeds.
The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic on America’s health care system made things even bleaker for Hood and her family, whose hospital visits were heavily regulated.
MORE: Mum meets woman who saved her son’s life with bone marrow donation
After a relapse of her diagnosis a year later, it became clear that Amya would need a bone marrow transplant.
After looking and not finding a match in her twin sister and mother, Be The Match found two potential donors for Amya’s transplant: Nash was one of them. According to Be The Match, “70% of patients do not have a matching donor in their family.” The Be The Match program helps find potential donors in situations like Amya’s.
Nash’s DNA was a perfect “10-for-10” match with Amya’s, according to Amya’s mother.
The bone marrow transplant went ahead in September 2021. Amya said she was “so happy and grateful.”
Nash, speaking in the video, said, “I think there’s a purpose I got a call, there’s a purpose I signed up, and now I’m a match? Out of the millions of people on the registry?”
She said she felt “like a superstar” during the healing process working with Be The Match.
Nash detailed the entire donation process on her TikTok account, which has garnered a following and includes a video with over 509,000 views (the caption of that video includes a registry code and instructions to sign up to be a donor with Be The Match), as well. as a similar video has over 700,000 views.
According to Be The Match, Nash, through her videos, helped register nearly 2,000 potential donors for the program, one of whom was eventually able to donate bone marrow as well. “GMA” first reported on Nash and other young people’s use of social media to raise awareness about donor registration earlier this year.
MORE: Young people use social media to raise awareness of donor registration
A year after Amya’s transplant, in late 2022, Nash received an email from Be The Match informing her that her bone marrow recipient was interested in meeting her.
“I’m so happy. I’m so happy to meet her,” Nash said in a TikTok video at the time.
Amya’s mother, Carolyn Lee, said that during her daughter’s recovery process, the donor was never far from their minds.
“Since we were thinking about the donor all the time,” she said. “From the beginning we were like, ‘When are we going to be able to find out about the donor?’ That was even before the transplant.”
In a text message Amya later sent to Nash after the two connected, Nash shared in the video that she wrote, “I know I’m the one fighting, but you’re the reason I’m fight.”
“Thank you so much,” she wrote, according to Nash. “I get to live to see my kids and get married and graduate because of you. You did something amazing for a stranger you didn’t even know and that’s amazing.”
The pair were given the chance to meet at Forum One, hosted by Be The Match, which took place earlier this month.
“I can imagine seeing her and wondering how fast I can get to her without falling, and without hitting her,” Nash said before the event, which took place in Minneapolis.
Amya shared a similar sentiment. “I’m so excited to meet her and run up on stage, give her a big hug and don’t let her go,” she said.
When they came together on stage at the event, they both expressed gratitude for each other.
“This is our goal, we are supposed to be here,” said Nash, adding that she was “grateful” and “humbled” by the experience.
Amya told him, “I’m so happy to have you in my life now, and to start our journey.”
Bone marrow donor and recipient reunite after lifesaving transplant featured on goodmorningamerica.com
