Beneficiaries live to see marrow program celebrate 10th year

In 2001, Troy Ford was on death’s door with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer.

In three weeks, he’s competing in an Ironman triathlon in Florida.

Ford, now 39 and cancer free, got a life-saving bone marrow transplant at Northside Hospital, making him one of about 150 people yearly who endure the lengthy and painful procedure at the north Fulton County hospital.

“Seeing all these people is great,” Ford said Saturday as he joined about 200 bone marrow recipients at a gala luncheon Northside threw to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its Blood and Marrow Transplant Program.

That so many patients were healthy enough to attend the event, held at the Georgia Aquarium, is a miracle in its own right.

Like most of those in attendance, Ford, a nutritional supplement salesman, was given a 36 percent chance of surviving five years past his transplant. That was seven years ago.

“It’s like playing Russian roulette but with four bullets in the gun instead of one,” Ford said after the group gathered for a photo in front of the aquarium’s whale shark exhibit.

“This is truly awesome,” said Thomas Burt, 62, of Dawsonville, who was diagnosed with myofibrosis in 2005 and got a bone marrow transplant the following year. Last summer, Burt and his wife, Laura, drove to Ocala, Fla., to meet his donor, Michelle Pearson. She sat next to the Burts at Saturday’s lunch, at which attendees dined on grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and grilled mixed vegetables.

“This is wonderful. It’s really a great event,” said Pearson, who keeps tabs on Burt every few weeks through e-mails and phone calls. “He’s my blood brother.”

Donating bone marrow is a two-day process in which doctors extract blood cells and send them to patients elsewhere in the world. They are later injected into the patient in hopes they will generate new, healthier cells. A bone marrow transplant requires more than a month of hospitalization and more months of home recovery.

Tracking down a bone marrow donor is rare but not unheard of, said Patti Owen, director of oncology services for Northside Hospital. Pearson had to sign several waivers allowing the National Marrow Donor Program to give Burt her contact information.

Dr. Kent Holland, a Northside cancer specialist, enjoyed seeing so many of his patients doing well years after their transplants.

“When you’re their doctor, you have to be the adult and be professional,” Holland said. “But you can’t help getting attached to them. They become like your family.”

Ford, of Sandy Springs, and his wife, Paula, adopted a boy from Kazakhstan after Ford regained his health. Carter Ford, 3, delighted at the fish at the world’s largest aquarium after the luncheon.

On the way home Saturday evening, Ford’s mind wandered back to the half-dozen doctors at the event.

“What these guys are doing, that’s the real story,” he said. “They’re not curing colds. They’re saving lives.”