Holly Becker — a cancer survivor for more than 20 years — first hugged the man whose stem cells saved her life, and then embraced his mother who made it all happen.
About six months after a devastating stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis at age 24, and after other treatments failed, Becker ultimately needed a stem cell transplant in June 1998 from the blood of a donated umbilical cord. It saved her life.
By chance, Becker, now 46, learned the identity of the mother who made the choice to donate her son’s cord years ago after both women submitted their DNA through an AncestryDNA genealogy kit, each interested in her own background.
The two women eventually connected on the site, then talked on the phone. On Sunday, with the help of Becker’s oncologist, Dr. Patrick Stiff, the two families met for the first time during a news conference at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, the site of Becker’s transplant. Experts say the meeting is exceptionally rare for cancer survivors whose donated stem cells come from umbilical cords, and perhaps the first of its kind.
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Stiff said identities of mothers and babies who donate cords aren’t even known to the blood banks that store the cords. For privacy reasons, names are not attached to the cords because unlike adult bone marrow donors, the stem cells of cords belong to minors whose parents have made the decision to donate for them.
But with the popularity of genealogy kits like AncestryDNA, identification now is possible because stem cell transplant recipients’ own stem cells are wiped out ahead of transplant to make way for the healthy, donated cells. AncestryDNA provides a disclaimer that its kits pick up blood cells, so transplant recipients could get inaccurate results and should not rely on this type of genealogy testing.
When Becker and Dania Davey each submitted their saliva in their AncestryDNA kits, Becker’s DNA registered as Patrick Davey’s, not her own. While her own stem cells remain in other parts of her body, like in her organs, Stiff said, Becker’s blood carries Patrick Davey’s stem cells. The kit picked up on those blood cells, and churned out a result that said she and Dania Davey have a parent-child relationship.
Dania Davey, who got her results before Becker, said she first thought it was a mistake. She had completed the kit because she’s adopted and wanted to learn about her biological family.
To figure out what went wrong, she contacted Becker on the site, who then saw her own results and corresponded with Dania Davey.
