With his bone marrow donation, Bad Hersfelder Jonathan Kehl, 22, probably saved the life of Canadian Minister Dominic LeBlanc. Kehl didn’t find out who the bone marrow donor was until two years after the donation.
According to DKMS, the odds of a suitable match are 20,000 to 1. The excitement was all the greater when Kehl found out whose life he had saved with his gift. “We Googled it and found more and more sites where it was written or reported,” Kehl says.
In the end, he doesn’t care what life he saved – he’s just happy he could help. And he did: LeBlanc is considered cured. “You saved my life, I will always be grateful to you”, were the first words of the first letter from the Minister of Canada to Kehl in Bad Hersfeld. Since then, a friendship has been forged between the men: “We write to each other regularly or we talk to each other by videoconference”.
LeBlanc invited him to come to Canada. He wanted to show him his homeland and also introduce Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The young Kehl already registered when he was at school, in 2018. “There was a DKMS campaign, and I took part in it”. A year later, the DKMS said he was likely the right bone marrow donor for the previously unknown patient in Canada. After further testing, the donation was made. “Get yourself registered with the DKMS,” is Kehl’s urgent appeal. The more you participate, the more chances you have of saving lives around the world.
How it works and how to get the record set is on the DKMS website.
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