If you have a sister, you know that she’s like your other half.
A best friend you want to kill half the time, but also the person who understands you.
The fact is, you’d do anything for each other.
Sam and Alex are sisters.
The girls, who are just two years apart, were in high school when Sam was diagnosed with severe aplastic anaemia – a life-threatening blood disorder that can only be cured by a bone marrow transplant.
Despite attempts in their family to find a suitable donor, nobody in Sam’s direct circle of family and friends was a DNA match.
Sam’s name has been on the National Bone Marrow Registry list for years, but her and Alex got tired of waiting around.
Taking fate into their own hands, they both sold their cars and decided to travel state to state to see if they can find their perfect match.
With each stop, they set up a table at a college campus asking people to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Registry.
According to Imgur user bcisaidiwould, the pair reach out to colleges as research shows younger people between the ages of 18-44 years of age are the most likely to successfully match.
All students have to do is swab the inside of the mouth to sign up.
The pair have faced a lot of rejection, and while they have yet to find a match, they have renewed hope.
Especially when they meet someone like Connor.
After signing up to help at one of Alex and Sam’s tables, he is now donating bone marrow to the register. Unfortunately none of his 115 matches were for Sam.
The pair now plan to host a TED Talk in November in Texas, where they hope they’ll finally meet the missing piece to their DNA puzzle.
