[Illusion]

When Cameron Lyle learned that he was a bone marrow match for a man with cancer, he immediately agreed to donate, a decision that will effectively end his sporting career.

The 21-year-old University of New Hampshire track and field star got swabbed to join the bone marrow registry back when he was a sophomore and didn’t think much of it, WMUR reports. After all, Lyle told ABC, he had been told that there was a one in five million chance for patients to find a match in a non-family member.

Despite the slim odds, the shot putter found out recently that he matched with a 28-year-old male cancer patient who doctors said had just six months to live, according to WMUR.

“I was surprised, I was pretty happy. I said yes right away,” the UNH senior told TODAY. “And then afterwards I thought about everything that that meant giving up, but I never had a second thought about donating. If I had said no, he wouldn’t have had a match.”

What the do-gooder athlete would be “giving up” is his shot-put career. While most donors recover pretty quickly, most don’t lift the kind of heavy objects Lyle throws over his shoulder on a frequent basis.

Since he’ll be getting stuck with needles in his pelvis a couple hundred times, he won’t be able to pick up anything weighing more than 20 pounds for about a month. The recuperation time will coincide with the East Conference championship, he told ABC.

While Lyle didn’t hesitate to make the sacrifice, he feared letting down his coach, Jim Boulanger. But he was in complete support right from the get-go.

"Here's the deal," Boulanger told Lyle, according to ABC. "You go to the conference and take 12 throws or you could give a man three or four more years of life. I don't think there's a big question here. This is not a moral dilemma. There's only one answer."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3202068.html

[Megamel29]

That's great of him to do that for someone else. But will he never recuperate enough to go back to his sport?

[gatagato]

Originally Posted by Megamel29 ↗

That's great of him to do that for someone else. But will he never recuperate enough to go back to his sport?

No, he wont (at that level). He'll miss the final two meets of his career, (including the America East Championships) but i bet my balls that the man is VERY happy now. Not all heroes look like Jack Bauer, this is definitely one of them, REAL heroes.

[Megamel29]

Originally Posted by gatagato ↗

No, he wont (at that level). He'll miss the final two meets of his career, (including the America East Championships) but i bet my balls that the man is VERY happy now. Not all heroes look like Jack Bauer, this is definitely one of them, REAL heroes.

Oh, is it because he plays for a college and by the time he is healed he will be out of college? Sorry, I don't know sports.

[gatagato]

Originally Posted by Megamel29 ↗

Oh, is it because he plays for a college and by the time he is healed he will be out of college? Sorry, I don't know sports.

Today, the medical procedure is NOT risk-free but 98/99% of donors completely recover within a couple of weeks. However, a trainer, a relative, a girfriend, a friend, will always put you under the pressure and will tell to you that it's a bad idea to put your career at risk in order to help someone that you have NEVER known in your life. At least one of them will do that. He decided that the best thing to do was to help some 28-year-old complete stranger, nothing that will guarrantee to him career, money and so on.

Now try to see it from the other side:
a man suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, something that is sentencing you to death within six months unless some good soul will emerge and say "here, i give a part of myself, of MY BODY to you".

Tsk! Karma works in mysterious ways, but it always works, and this man deserves all the luck in the world for what he has done.

[kellyhound]

faith in humanity restored