Georgia bone marrow donor meets recipient in Illinois

It was an emotional moment when Illinois cancer survivor Rosalind Beard met the Georgia man who donated his bone marrow to help her fight Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Beard, a 37-year-old mother of four from Melrose Park, and Tim Crawford, 40, of Adairsville, Ga., cried and embraced Sunday when they met for the first time at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, a Chicago suburb.

Story continues below ?

Quantcast

The pair had to wait two years to meet because of confidentiality agreements, but Beard said it was important to thank Crawford personally.

"He saved me," she said. "We have the same stem cells, so I feel like I knew him already."

Crawford said he registered to be a donor during a church event in early 2007, and was contacted in October 2007 that he was a match for Beard. Crawford is a full-time marketing and management student and father of three adult children. He said his mother died of cancer and he wanted to give someone more time with their family.

Donating left Crawford in the hospital for a night and then out of commission for a week and a half, he said.

"The process was painful, but it was worth it," Crawford said.

Beard first had a transplant of her own stem cells after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2000. She relapsed in 2006 and had another transplant with Crawford's stem cells. She now says she will return to nursing school so she can help others.

The two met during the hospital's annual Bone Marrow Transplant Celebration.