Jennifer Jones Austin Celebrates 2-Year Birthday Post-Transplant!

Feb. 24, 2012

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Jennifer Jones Austin, the 43-year-old mother of two who underwent a lifesaving cord blood stem cell transplant in 2010 to treat her leukemia, celebrated her 2-year birthday �post transplant� on February 24th.

When her sisters asked her to tell the world what it felt like to be "two years old today," Jennifer said, "All weather is good weather!"

Jennifer faced a difficult search for a match because she is African American and the number of ethnic donors on the national Be The Match registry is low. After much searching she was able to find a cord blood stem cell match.

Jennifer said she shares her "new" birthday with her father, noting "God makes no mistakes."

The HLA Registry at Community Blood Services held four marrow drives in Jennifer�s name, registering 127 new members to the national registry, 35 of whom were African American.

If you are interested in running a marrow drive in your community or in joining The Registry as a potential, volunteer donor for other patients in need like Jennifer, please call Kathy Young at 800-336-3363 ext. 1909 or go to BeTheMatch.org. African Americans and volunteers representative of diverse populations are especially needed.