Hi, everyone. Welcome to Thanks for being here, a short weekly pod to remind us of the many

essential and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday, I'll read a submission from a

listener, Kelly Corrigan wonders, could be wedding vows or a bat mitzvah toast, a eulogy, or

retirement speech. We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into our better

selves and remember our highest values. We encourage you to share this podcast each week with

one person you love. Maybe someone you miss and need to bring closer, someone you want to feel

your appreciation or admiration or both.

This is thanks for being here.

This week's Thanks for Being Here is about an oncologist and a stem cell donor.

There is a woman named Amy who lives in San Antonio, Texas,

and she is an oncologist, and she discovered she had leukemia in her own lab.

She had a poisonous spider bite,

so a doctor friend recommended she should check her blood work to make sure there were no problems caused by the venom.

So she ran her own CBC, a complete blood count, and immediately knew something was wrong. She says,

I cared for patients with leukemia, so I was pretty sure what was happening. It was very surreal.

I called my husband and packed some belongings from my office and went to the hospital for admission.

So leukemia treatment is so brutal and it's totally isolating

and this was all during the pandemic.

So she was allowed to have one visitor at a time

and only for limited hours.

But there was hope.

A month into treatment, Amy and her family learned her perfect matching donor

...