BARK RIVER –  Many know Christmas to be the season of giving, and one of the greatest gifts one can give is the gift of life. This is very possibly what Jason Feathers of Bark River gave to a 74-year-old leukemia patient, through a donation of bone marrow he made Dec. 21.

Jason made the decision to become a donor in June, after he and his wife, Janel, read an article about a 16-year-old boy who was in need of a bone marrow transplant.

Moved by the young boy’s story, the couple and their 18-year-old daughter, Larissa, decided to add their names to the National Marrow Donation Program Be A Match Registry.

“It was an article that if anybody read it, they’d want to try to do something about it,” said Janel.

“We figured that one of us or our daughter would probably be a chance to match him because he was of Native American descent, as we are,” added Jason.

Unfortunately, the young boy passed away in August. But only a month later, Jason received a call from the registry notifying him that he was a match for an elderly female with acute myelogenous leukemia.

Jason and Janel were thrilled to have the opportunity to help someone.

“It made me think about her (the patient’s) family, and how they must be feeling, because we were so happy that he was going to get a chance to do this,” said Jane. “We were so excited for her.”

In the five days leading up to the donation, Jason had to get a series of injections of a drug called filgrastim which boosts the level of stem cells in your body.

On Monday, Dec. 21, Jason went to the blood center in Milwaukee where he went through a Peripheral Blood Stem Cells (PBSC) donation, which is a nonsurgical procedure, that is similar to donating blood, but for an extensive period.

“The procedure went really smoothly,” said Janel. “The whole time I was really proud of him and I wanted to tell everyone in the room. Everybody was wonderful. The nurse stayed with him the whole time, and when it was over, everybody was cheerful.”

The 74-year-old woman received the stem cells from Jason’s body the next day, however, he doesn’t know whether it helped or not. Donors and recipients typically aren’t allowed direct contact with each other for a year.

“We thought about her all day yesterday, wondering how her procedure was, and if it was making her feel good right away,” said Janel.

Now that Jason has gone through the procedure, he really wants to spread the word about how easy and relatively painless donating marrow can be.

“I’d just like to get the word out,” he said. “People think it involves drilling into the bone, but no it doesn’t. That’s just one of the methods. It’s not as painful as people think.”

“It’s just a moment of your time that could change someone’s life,” added Janel.

Jason said if only more people donated marrow, matches would be made much more quickly, and more lives could be saved.

“It’s not difficult to do this,” he said. “I was able to help someone after only two months. If everybody just did it, without a reason to do it, imagine how many more people could be helped.”

To sign up to be a marrow donor, call the National Marrow Donor Program at 1-800-627-7692 or visit www.marrow.org