OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — An Overland Park bone marrow transplant recipient traveled Thursday to New York City, where he met his donor for the first time.
Scott Novorr received his transplant in 2018 at the University of Kansas Cancer Center and today is cancer free.
He was diagnosed in 2014 with chronic myloid leukemia.
When oral medication didn't work, he needed a bone marrow transplant, but the odds of him getting a match were extremely low.
Only three people in the world on the Bone Marrow Registry were considered a match, a group that includes 40-year-old New Yorker Binyomin Gewirtz.
Gewirtz agreed to be a donor and the rest is history.
At a ceremony Thursday in New York, Novorr and Gewirtz shared an emotional long embrace upon meeting as Novorr thanked Gewirtz.
"You had no idea who I was or what my family situation was or anything about me, and you still made the decision to change somebody's life," Novorr recalled telling Gewirtz. "I told him about my family and the impact that he's had on not just my life, but my family's life and my kids and my wife and friends. It reaches far beyond just me."
Gewirtz said his sacrifice "makes it more meaningful after meeting Scott ... and donating for him, but I would donate for any individual to save a life."
University of Kansas City Center Dr. Sunil Abhyankar is among those celebrating Scott's successful transplant and new life.
"It is fantastic," Abhyankar said. "It is really a great feeling to see one of our patients, Scott in this case, doing so great, so well and he's back at work."
Novorr thanked his doctors, nurses, the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, which organized the banquet where he met Gewirtz.
He said he's now focused on things that add meaning to life, which includes encouraging people to become organ donors.
