Back in May of 2016, Rusty Plemons (now 21) was just finishing his junior year of high school outside of Dayton, Ohio when his doctors finally figured out why he hadn’t been feeling the best, and what his body was fighting.
The diagnosis — acute myeloid leukemia.
Rusty was admitted to the Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital in Columbus where he underwent multiple rounds of chemo, and got on the wait list to match a donor for a bone marrow transplant.
Mark Williamson, a college football player for William & Mary was at home in Virginia that same summer when he got a call from Be the Match (a nonprofit group who connects patients with life-threatening illnesses/diseases with potential bone marrow donors.
Mark, who joined the registry with some teammates a few months earlier, matched Rusty!
Even though moving forward with donating bone marrow would jeopardize Mark’s upcoming redshirt freshman season, he leaned into to help without a second thought.
Mark shared, “I have two parents with huge hearts, and I knew where the coaching staff’s hearts lied . . . It was a very big privilege to be able to say yes, right then and there. I didn’t have to think about it or weigh my options. It was: ‘Let’s do this. You tell me where I need to be.'”
Rusty was admittedly scared when he received his leukemia diagnosis, saying, “You automattically think it’s a death sentence, and it very well could’ve been if Mark wouldn’t have donated.”
The transplant took place in September of 2016, and was such a success that Rusty was able to spend Thanksgiving at home with family.
Even though Rusty did end up having a tough few years after with setbacks, fighting infections and other hospitalizations, his body is finally producing normal and healthy blood cells.
Because of confidentiality policies for anonymous patients and donors, the two weren’t able to connect within the first year, but Be the Match helped the Mark and Rusty exchange contact information about six months ago.
Just this past Friday, Rusty was able to travel to William & Mary’s College in Virginia where he walked through the tunnel and onthe to field at Zable Stadium to meet the kind soul who saved his life!
(MSN)
