Story by Maya Waid
George Jonas was a man of solitary passions.
He spent hours outdoors, bird watching, hunting, fishing and enjoying the quiet, painting the Michigan landscapes around him in watercolor.
His daughter, Christine Lewis, knew her father was a reflective soul. She saw the same peaceful characteristics in her own daughter, Samantha Lewis.
Yet Samantha never had the chance to meet her grandfather — he passed away from leukemia 32 days after his diagnosis, while Christine was pregnant with her.
Still, Samantha feels a strong connection to him because of her mother’s stories and their shared personality traits.
To honor him, she signed up for the National Marrow Donor Program, the national registry to donate blood and stem cells, three years ago.
“Had (stem cell donations) been an option for my dad, that would have been life changing for us and for him and everybody else,” Jonas said. “It was an honor that she wanted to honor him that way.”
A Desire to Serve
Cancer hits close to home for Samantha – she has lost both her grandfathers to it and her dad recently overcame his year-long battle with throat cancer.
So, it was no surprise that immediately after her 18th birthday, Samantha joined the National Marrow Donor Program (formerly Be The Match).
“I always knew that once I had the opportunity to donate to Be The Match, I would absolutely do anything to be able to be a part of that,” Samantha said.
When Samantha signed up for the registry almost four years ago, her mom was hesitant for her to donate.
“I spoke about my dad as she was growing up, and it never occurred to me that she was wanting to sign up because of my dad,” Jonas said. “It was just in her nature to want to participate in some sort of life saving help.”
The Science of Stem Cells
Each year more than 18,000 people are diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers or diseases where a stem cell transplant is their best chance for survival, according to data provided by the NDMP.
Blood stem cells can be collected in two ways: from bone marrow or, more commonly, from the bloodstream through a procedure called peripheral blood stem cell donation. This non-surgical, outpatient process accounts for about 90% of donations and involves five days of injections to boost the production of blood-forming cells.
After joining the registry, donors are matched with patients based on genetic markers, but this process can take months or even years.
Once a match is found, the donated cells help restore the recipient’s ability to produce healthy blood cells after intense treatments like chemotherapy or radiation.
For Samantha, being on the donor list is about more than her donation, it is a way to encourage others to act selflessly and help those in need.
“Being able to put someone else first in a way that completely changes their life is an opportunity that I think everyone should take,” Samantha said. “At the end of the day, being a donor and being on the registry is so much easier than cancer, and if it’s my loved one suffering from cancer, I would hope that there are people who are willing to put a stranger first in that moment.”
Receiving The Call
Last June, Samantha, now 21, got a call that informed her she may be a match for someone.
She donated blood for testing. Two weeks later, she received the news she had been waiting years for.
You are the match.
She had no second thoughts, but part of her was grieving for her recipient.
“It’s very emotionally taxing to think about how this all is because someone is suffering from cancer, and that’s really sad and devastating,” Samantha said. “So as much as I was really excited to be able to contribute, I also kind of kept it to myself.”
Samantha visited Duke Hospital several times to undergo a physical test, venous assessment, several blood draws, and a pregnancy test to ensure she was completely healthy before her donation day.
“I was well informed, and I knew what I was going through, and I knew it was expected of me. When I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed over it, I was able to lean on that information as a method of calming myself down.”
The Donation
Samantha poses for a photo after getting a peripherally inserted central catheter line placed in her neck. Photo courtesy of Samantha Lewis.
When she arrived at Duke Blood Cancer Center on Aug. 12, the first step in the process was getting a peripherally inserted central catheter line placed in Samantha’s neck.
This step is not as common for stem cell donations — Samantha’s arm veins were not prominent enough to retrieve the cells. Instead the central line served as a direct access point to her carotid artery.
Once the line was placed, Samantha was hooked up to the retrieval machine and waited while the cells were extracted.
She felt her body get tingly and fall asleep while she tried to keep her mind preoccupied.
“The scariest part was the central line,” Samantha said. “They’re just ripping a giant tube out of your neck and you can’t really see it so it was really freaky. That was the only part that really got to me all day.”
A Shoulder to Lean On
From the moment she called him in June with the news that she was a match, Samantha’s boyfriend, Vincent Blum, was by her side.
While she donated, Blum and Samantha dug into their stash of snacks, paid for by the National Marrow Donor Program. The two, mostly Blum, enjoyed Milanos, Cheez-Its, caramel popcorn and Starbucks during the 12-hour process.
They also shared a set of AirPods and enjoyed music and podcasts together to pass the time. Even though Blum played a support role in Samantha’s process, he felt the weight of her actions.
Through Samantha’s journey with the NDMP, Blum learned about the process, helped her emotionally prepare and saw first-hand the positive impact that donating can have.
“It made me feel really good about myself, even though I really wasn’t doing anything,” Blum said. “I was grateful to have the opportunity to be there for her. It made me feel really good and all I was doing was sitting next to her while she saved someone’s life.”
Healing Through Gratitude
During her junior year at UNC-Chapel Hill, while her father was battling throat cancer, Samantha felt the weight of not being able to be home often. The distance left her with a lingering sense of guilt.
Donating stem cells became more than just a way to help a stranger — it became part of her own healing process. Through the act of giving, Samantha found a way to cope with her guilt and bring hope to another family struggling with cancer.
In her daily life, Samantha tries to practice gratitude for everything, both the big wins and the small victories. It’s what led her to getting the word “Tar” tattooed on her heel — a constant reminder to be grateful for all the opportunities she gets as a UNC Tar Heel.
“I’m just very grateful to be here right now and be surrounded by my loved ones and be surrounded by my friends and even acquaintances,” Samantha said. “Just to be able to continue on the path that I’m on and allow these experiences to inform me and the steps that I take is so important.”
Per HIPAA regulations, Samantha is not allowed to know who her stem cells went to. However in a year, if the recipient chooses to reach out to her she has the possibility of meeting them.
“The person that I donated to is a complete stranger,” Samantha said. “All I know is he’s an elderly gentleman somewhere in the United States with leukemia, and that’s all I really need to know.”
Her mom never doubted that once Samantha signed up to donate in 2021, she would one day make good on her promise.
“She doesn’t quit,” Christine said. “It is a mark of her compassion and character that she would go on and go forward with it.”
Throughout Samantha’s childhood, her mom often pointed to Orion’s Belt — a pattern of stars that resemble a hunter in the night sky — as a symbol of her father, George.
Her connection to her grandfather has been a guiding force. Now, as she prepares to graduate, she carries the memory of him in two significant ways: by donating life-saving stem cells to an elderly man with leukemia, and by getting a tattoo of Orion’s Belt on her ribcage in his honor.
“I really cherish that idea that even though he wasn’t around, she knows him,” Jonas said. “She knows him from pictures, she knows him from my tails, and now she’s done something significant to honor him.”
