Key points from today’s guests:

Randy Flenker, bone marrow transplant recipient

• Randy was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. One hospital providing chemotherapy treatment for Randy’s cancer told his family he wouldn’t make it out of the hospital.
• But Randy persevered and was put on the bone marrow transplant list.
• Seven years after being put on the list, his donor was found -- a fellow Chiefs fan named Ollie who lives in Germany.
• Randy and Ollie are now literal “blood brothers” because he said he owes him his life and would do anything for him.
• He is grateful for the gift he has received and for the support of his wife and other people around him.

Ollie Brieger, bone marrow donor

• As a young kickboxing instructor, Ollie was an ideal match based on test results.
• He traveled to the U.S. and Randy took him around to experience a number of American activities, including Kansas City barbecue.
• Ollie shares a love of the Kansas City Chiefs with Randy who sent a Patrick Mahomes’ jersey to Ollie.
• He said you rarely get the opportunity to save a life, so he would donate again if needed.
• He encourages others to sign up to be a donor, saying it's very important that you have this international network as the more people are registered, the higher the probability is that you get a donor.

Dr. Anurag Singh, medical oncologist, The University of Kansas Cancer Center

• Transplant can provide a potential cure for a number of different aggressive diseases.
• The international bone marrow registry has almost 41 million donors.
• For Americans, most of the donors are found in the United States itself, but depending on the ethnicity, a fair number of our donations do come from Europe.
• The National Marrow Donor Program coordinates this whole process.
• Family members have a 25 percent chance of being a full match, so other donors are needed.
• You don't even need to be a perfect match to be a donor. We need more people on the donor registry – BeTheMatch.org – especially young people.

Monday, July 29 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Learn more about how gender impacts a person’s heart, immune system, and bones.

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