Mercer Island’s David Wolf said that by being part of a Jewish family he’s learned through his Judaism studies the utmost importance of saving a life.
His parents, Lisi Mezistrano Wolf and Rob Wolf, have always taught him about giving back to the community through volunteerism and charity work and making an impact on others.
Now at age 22, David is making a massive difference in a 24-year-old leukemia patient’s life by donating stem cells after learning he was an exact match for the patient. The odds of David being an exact match to aid in the patient’s stem cell transplant were one in 100,000, he said.
David joined the Gift of Life Marrow Registry’s nationwide database after giving a quick cheek swab to collect DNA samples during a trip to Israel a year and a half ago. This past August, he received a text saying that he was a potential match; additional testing confirmed the match about a month later.
Earlier this month, David visited the NMDP Seattle Collection Center to make his stem cell donation through a blood extraction/return and filtering process.
“After a month, they’re going to start giving me updates on the patient’s health, how the transfusion went and how his health has changed since then,” David said. “And then if all goes well and both he and I consent to it, then we can contact each other and potentially meet up after a year.”
David looks forward to that day when he can connect with the patient face to face.
Following the donation, David — a 2021 Mercer Island High School graduate — returned to college at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he focuses his studies on entrepreneurship and math and is a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
On campus, he’s worked with Gift of Life ambassadors to get some friends and fraternity brothers swabbed, and David even heard that a student he didn’t know discussed the donation in a group project.
“So that’s been really cool. And so hopefully even if one of those people that have seen me do it eventually gets a match, that’s enormous. This whole process was so great. It makes me very happy to see more people get on board with it,” said David.
Lisi and Rob said that their son is kind and generous and they’re proud of his eagerness to embrace his experience: “Despite facing some unpleasant side effects, he was truly thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to help save a life. We hope that others will recognize how simple and impactful it can be to donate through the Gift of Life, and we encourage them to join this important movement.”
Island resident and longtime Wolf family friend Ann McGovern learned of David’s donation on social media and offered the following insight: “Having been through the ordeal of seeing cancer’s devastating effects up close, what David is doing is not only incredible but a heroic effort that could save the life of another. To see a young man so early in life make this kind of sacrifice and gift speaks to the Wolf family values and what they have done to raise such a wonderful kid.”
For more information about stem cell donations, visit: https://www.giftoflife.org/
