Feb. 20--Kevin Wise doesn't know the man who donated the bone marrow that helped rid his body of leukemia a year ago.

But that didn't stop the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District battalion chief and a few of his colleagues from organizing two bone marrow registry drives -- even before he underwent his transplant -- in hopes of helping others like him.

As Wise said, it was a way to "pay it forward."

It paid off quickly.

Last week, one of Wise's fellow firefighters, one of nearly 200 people who registered during the drive, donated his bone marrow to a 53-year-old man.

"I feel like it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said volunteer firefighter Richard Gleaves. "I am lucky I got to do it. I would do it again if I had the chance."

The chances of a match are pretty slim. In fact, only 1 in every 430 Americans on the registry will actually donate.

Gleaves doesn't know anything about the recipient. He doesn't know what disease he has, whether he has children or where he is from. He just hopes that, like with Wise, the bone marrow will save the man's life and that someday he can meet him.

Gleaves, who lives in Oakdale, said he had no hesitation when he was contacted as a potential match a few months ago. He was even excited despite thinking that donating would require anesthesia and surgery to have bone removed from his hip. He'd been through it before when a foot injury required a fusion from bone that was taken from his hip. He said the recovery was painful, but the memory of it didn't deter him.

He went to a local clinic to have blood drawn for additional testing and eventually was determined to be the best genetic match for the recipient. Then Gleaves learned that his donation wouldn't require a surgery but rather a peripheral blood-stem donation, which is the method used by 70 percent of transplant facilities.

It wasn't a pain-free process and it required a bit of his time, but Gleaves said representatives from Be The Match went above and beyond to make it easier for him and his wife, paying for travel and hotel expenses near Stanford Medical Center and thoroughly explaining all the potential side effects.

The donation required five days of injections of a medication that causes the stem cells to leave the bone marrow where they're produced and enter the bloodstream.

Gleaves said he experienced the bone and joint pain about which he was counseled. It became most uncomfortable two nights before the procedure. But he received additional medication to cope with the pain.

The donation procedure took about six hours. Blood was removed from one of Gleaves' arms, run through a machine that extracts the bone marrow, then put back into his body though the other arm, he said. Gleaves said he was exhausted afterward but felt normal the next day.

He encourages others to sign up for the registry to increase the chance of survival for those with blood cancers.

"What you are doing for people -- what I have done and what the person did for Kevin -- it is life. It's the absolute best hope you are giving for someone. So who cares if you have to take a little time off of work," Gleaves said, joking that the worst part was the traffic getting to and from the Bay Area.

Of his recipient, Gleaves said, "I hope I get to meet the guy ... it would be nice to shake each other's hand."

Be The Match, the organization that manages the marrow registry, allows for donors and recipients to apply to meet each other a year to three years after the recipient received the transplant, depending on the country the people are from.

That requirement is in place, representatives have said, because the outcome for the recipient and his or her family is not always positive. There is the possibility the cancer will return or an even higher chance the recipient will suffer an infection or his or her body will reject the donor's bone marrow, resulting in an attack on the patient's organs. The chances of those decrease with time.

Last month, Wise, who lives in Modesto, celebrated one year since his transplant, a milestone that means the chance the leukemia will return decreased from a range of 40 percent to 60 percent to 10 percent, he said. After two years, he will be officially cured.

Wise has defied many odds in his recovery, such as returning to work six months early. He even has been cleared by his doctor to participate in a firefighter stair climb in Seattle next month that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Wise will climb 69 flights of stairs in full turnout, gear and an oxygen mask. Contributions can be made at his fundraising page.

Last month, Wise applied to meet his donor and is awaiting a response.

Erin Tracy: 209-578-2366

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