UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Winter 2018 | Page 30

quick takes
Cancer Patient Meets His One in 24 Million Match
Jimmy Roberson and Alina Franke
It took a harrowing diagnosis of aplastic anemia,
two unsuccessful chemotherapy treatments, 50 blood
transfusions, more than 25 platelet injections, and almost
three years and 4,650 miles before Talladega, native Jimmy
Roberson could meet who he says is his angel here on
Earth. Her name is Alina Franke, a 27-year-old Hamburg,
Germany, native who donated stem cells way back in 2009,
all because she hoped to help someone in need one day.
That someone turned out to be Roberson, a former
Talladega County commissioner and Chelsea City Council
member. Franke and her boyfriend, Christoph Kleeberg,
traveled from Germany to the United States in September
to meet Roberson and his wife, Michele, for the first time.
The meeting at the Birmingham International Airport was
emotional for Roberson and Franke, who had previously
communicated through email, but never spoken to one
another.
“Neither one of us could talk at first,” Roberson says of
the airport meeting. “We were hugging, and I don’t know
if I was shaking and it was shaking her, but we both were
shaking. And we were in silence for 30-45 seconds. I finally
just told her that I wanted to thank her for saving my life,
and that she’d always be my angel. Always.”
“It was an emotional experience, for sure,” Franke says. “I
didn’t think I would ever meet my recipient. When I learned
someone was going to benefit from my stem cells, I was just
excited to learn someone was being helped.”
For Roberson, help arrived in the form of a one in 24
million long shot. That’s how many people his caregivers at
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UAB and the Be The Match Foundation had to go through
to find what, or better yet, who Roberson needed — Franke,
who was a perfect match.
“The clock was ticking on my life, and fortunately, my
angel was found,” says Roberson. “I would not be here today
without her kindness, her selflessness and her willingness to
give of herself, all in the name of helping a total stranger —
one who ultimately wound up being half a world away.”
UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and the School of
Medicine’s Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation and
Cellular Therapy Program team of physicians and nurses
were vital to keeping Roberson alive long enough to receive
the transplant at UAB Hospital, he says.
“Between my wife and the care team at UAB — I
would never even have had the opportunity to be alive long
enough to get the transplant, and even after the transplant
when I had some really bad days when my body was trying
to reject the bone marrow,” says Roberson. “My doctors,
Antonio DiStasi, Racquel Innis-Shelton, Luciano Costa,
Donna Salzman and many others, and then my nurses, Lea
Freeman, Jay Smith, Tiffani Hill, Becky Howard, Melissa
Sentell, Binita Parekh and so many others — everyone,
literally everyone, in UAB’s bone marrow unit are family to
me. I just love them and thank them for everything they did
for me.”
After Roberson improved enough to go home and he
continued to regain his strength, he hoped to one day meet
his donor. Typically, recipients can ask the Be The Match
Foundation to reach out to donors to see if they would be
willing to connect one year after the transplant. But in
Roberson’s case, he had to wait two years to comply with
Germany’s rules on contact with donors.
When the Be The Match Foundation connected with
Franke, she said she was willing to learn who the recipient
of her bone marrow was. After the Robersons and Franke
had written each other through email over several months,
the Robersons offered to host Franke and Kleeberg any time
they wanted to come to the United States.
“Alina is very humble, and she did not donate to receive
recognition,” Roberson says. “She did it purely out of the
kindness of her own heart. I can never repay her for what
she did, but Michele and I could tell her how much we
appreciate what she did and love her for what she did.”