Kimberly Keys

Kimberly Keys received her bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University in May 1993, then soon married Trey and started on a master's degree. But her happiness was cut short by chronic myelogenous leukemia, for which a bone marrow transplant was recommended as the most effective treatment.

 

When no family member had matching bone marrow, she depended on her team of M. D. Anderson caregivers to find a suitable stranger through a national registry of volunteer donors. While waiting, she "kept busy" completing her master's degree. On Oct. 1, 1994, she gratefully accepted the bone marrow of a Tulsa attorney. The two met a year later and continue annual reunions to celebrate their bond.

 

"He is an absolutely amazing man with a wonderful wife and two children," Keys says. He already had given bone marrow once before to another stranger in medical need and just recently re-registered as a matched unrelated donor. Keys teaches science to sixth graders, is an avid reader and enjoys water sports.