It was no ordinary wedding. The bride was Punjabi, the bridegroom Bengali, and both were American. The colourful procession of people danced the bhangra down a New York street. The bridegroom arrived, not on a horse but on a motor cycle. The ceremony was a traditional Hindu one but it was held on a rooftop against the backdrop of Lower Manhattan’s skyline. However, different though these features were, what made the wedding so remarkable was that it was a fairy tale come true.
Three years ago the bride was diagnosed with a deadly form of leukaemia and was told that her only hope of survival was a special procedure. This involved a transplant of stem cells from a matching donor, a process that would be tantamount to installing a new immune system. However such a match seemed unlikely in the existing pool of potential donors, particularly as, since the bride was of Indian origin, only the stem cells of a south Asian donor would be genetically acceptable.
In the meantime, while efforts to find a donor were begun, several gruelling rounds of chemotherapy led to a remission. This seemed to be good news, and the couple, believing that the remission would last, decided to go ahead with their wedding. These plans had to be cancelled when they received the devastating news that the cancer had returned.
This is when the story took a remarkable turn. Refusing to abandon hope, the girl’s fianc? decided to give up a highly successful management consultancy and devote himself full time to finding a donor. Backing him totally with their own input of time and effort were both families and a host of friends. Together, they set up the South Asian Marrow Foundation, of which he is today the executive director. He put their story on a CD and distributed 5,000 copies to church groups, government agencies and news outlets. A website was started urging south Asians to become potential donors. Donor drives were organised all over. The search covered not just the United States but also India, the UK, and anywhere else where a response could be expected. His indefatigable efforts resulted in more than 20,000 new south Asian donors signing up. Finally and unbelievably, he received his reward in finding a match for his bride-to-be. She received the stem cell transplant last November, and with it the hope of a healthy immune system. Six other patients have also benefited.
“For once,” the young man was to say, “it didn’t matter what religion you were ? Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, male or female. We put aside all differences and came together for humanity, to save a life.”
Truly, a fairy tale come true.
