Each year many people pass away because they do not find a matching marrow donor. And each year, some are saved by the donation from a matching donor. Stephanie Rudat is one of those who found a match.

The doctors advised a treatment called Autologus HSCT, which uses the patients own stem cells to heal the body. The process has a lower risk of infection and rejection of stem cells by the body. However this first effort at reclaiming Stephanie's health was not successful.

After the Autologus failed, the family had to look for a second option, finding a match. Stephanie is half Pakistani and half Caucasian. Finding a marrow donor is itself a difficult task and being mixed makes it even harder. Donors must match the precise genetics of the patient, and many in-need patients never find a donor.

Since Stephanie had already undergone one transplant, hospitals would put her at the end of their waiting lists. Every moment counted as Stephanie's condition deteriorated.

In going over their options, one doctor told the Rudats they were "crazy" for continuing their search for a donor and that Stephanie would be a vegetable if she had a transplant.

To compound their desperation, the medical bills were also getting huge and the family had already exhausted its one million medical insurance limit. They were now without insurance. As medical expenses mounted Rudats lost their jobs, and then their home.

But any sentiment that this was a hopeless fight did not have an audience with Stephanie's family. They found a supportive and optimistic doctor, and soon learned Stephanie had been accepted into Fred Hutchinson Hospital in Seattle. Their first major hurdle - finding a hospital who would take her - had been cleared. The next one before them was even more daunting: finding a marrow donor.

The Rudat family lived at Stephanie's bedside. They spoke with doctors, they prayed, and they waited. And six months later, doctors told them they had a match.

The match was imperfect, and the next dilemma before the family was whether to wait for a perfect match or seize this chance. Every day mattered for Stephanie and to them it was not a question: they would accept the marrow.

In preparation for the procedure patients must undergo six weeks of chemotherapy, a process so taxing that many do not survive. As Stephanie underwent treatment, the Rudat family was living day-by-day. Stephanie survived chemotherapy and was soon scheduled for a bone marrow transplant.

Stephanie was just 16 months old when she had the bone marrow transplant. Up to this point Stephanie had lived all but the first few weeks of her life in a hospital.

The procedure was a success.

A life had been saved, and more than all Stephanie's doctors and nurses, there was one face and name that could be credited for saving her: the marrow donor, without whom Stephanie could not have survived. Yet the face and name they wished to know most was off limits and out of reach. One thing kept them from thanking this person who had saved Stephanie's life: the law. For legal reasons, direct communication with a donor cannot be had for one year. After one year, the family and the donor signed consent forms to meet, and one day they received a call:

"I am Stephanie's donor."

A Navy Seal living in Vermont, he arranged a meeting during his visit to a naval base in San Diego. Rudat family was all praise for him.

Today Stephanie is 16, and remembers nothing of those first three years of her life spent in a hospital. She likes to play soccer, hangs out with friends, draws, and wants to be a crime scene investigator.

Reminding people it takes only minor inconvenience to save a life, she urges others to register as marrow donors to give others the gift she was given, the gift of a second chance.

You can register to be a marrow donor at one of the events listed below. Make A Difference in the South Asian Community!

March 4, : Holi, Irvine Mandir

March 6, : UCSD San Diego

April 8, : Baisakhi, Los Angeles Convention Center

(Content provided by Kristeen Singh, Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches, and Rudat Family.)