Being generous is not only a nice thing to do, it can save lives. Twin Creeks Mine Maintenance employee Tim Swatman knows this firsthand after undergoing a lengthy and sometimes uncomfortable procedure to donate blood stem cells for a global bone marrow donor program that helps cancer patients.
Swatman, who had earlier signed up as a donor while in the Air Force, said he sensed a need to help such people. He traveled to Washington, D.C., to donate to a program that ships bone marrow and blood cells around the world to patients both young and old.
It doesn't matter whether I know them or not," he said. "I just wanted to give them a chance they might not have had otherwise."
During the week long procedure in Washington, Swatman received daily injections of a drug used on cancer patients to increase their cell counts after chemotherapy. He said that after four days of injections, every bone in his body hurt. He explained that because he also received anticoagulants, he had to avoid getting cuts and abstain from alcohol, aspirin or other substances that could affect blood clotting.
On the fifth day, physicians harvested his cells during a complex, 4.5-hour procedure. Swatman said it was almost a week later before he finally began to feel better. Despite the rigorous sounding daily regimen, Swatman said he still had the energy after the injections to go sightseeing with his wife around the nation's capitol.
Newmont salutes Swatman for going above and beyond to help others. For more information about the marrow donation program, visit www.marrow.org.
