LONGVIEW—Eight-year-old Sean Suppan made a deep impression on Stephen McCormick the first time they met.
“Sean was stronger than I had imagined,” McCormick said.
Sean Suppan, age 8, was saved by the bone marrow donated to him by East Texas Baptist University alum Stephen McCormick of Sugarland. The two met for the first time recently in at a banquet sponsored by Because I Care, a recruitment group in support of Be The Match marrow donor registry. (PHOTO / Courtesy of Chas Shira)McCormick made an even deeper impact on Sean four years earlier, before they even knew each other’s names, when he donated bone marrow that saved Sean’s life.
The pair finally met at a recent banquet in Longview sponsored by Because I Care, a recruitment group that supports Be The Match marrow-donor registry. Sean and his parents, Ellen and David Suppan, travelled to East Texas from their home in Pennsylvania for the event.
In November 2008, McCormick registered during a donor-recruitment drive when he was a student at East Texas Baptist University. About four months later, he received a phone call telling him he might be a match for a 4-year-old boy with adrenoleukodystrophy—a genetic disorder that damages the insulating membrane surrounding nerve cells in the brain. The same family already had lost another son to the disease at age 10.
‘A special thing’
“When I was contacted, I was shocked that I was even a possible match,” McCormick recalled. “To be the one is a special thing. I thought, ‘What a great opportunity to help someone.’ I considered it a blessing to be able to be used by God to help save someone’s life.”
McCormick donated marrow at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. The marrow was flown to Minneapolis, where Sean received it.
At the time of the April 2009 procedure, the donor and recipient were anonymous to one another. After one year, both were given the option to sign release forms and contact one another.
Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays
Sean’s mother told a reporter from the Longview News-Journal McCormick’s donation allowed them to do for Sean what they couldn’t do for their older son—save his life.
Opportunity to help
“I never looked at it as being a hero or saving someone’s life. I looked at it as an opportunity to help someone to have another season in his life. Even if it was unsuccessful, I would have the same outlook. It was a blessing to help a stranger,” said McCormick, a high school teacher and coach in Sugar Land.
When Because I Care returns to the ETBU campus Oct. 30-31 to recruit donors, McCormick hopes students will consider making the same decision he did.
“Sometimes there is only one possible match, and that could be you,” he tells potential donors. “It is a great opportunity to help someone by giving of yourself, just like Jesus did on the cross.”
Similar outfits
When McCormick met Sean at the banquet in Longview, he noticed the two wore similar outfits.
“He looked sharp. … So, I guess he got my sense of fashion along with the DNA,” McCormick said. “He was funny, affectionate and appeared to be like any normal 8-year-old boy.”
Since 1990, Because I Care has added more than 20,000 potential donors to the Be The Match registry. Dozens of those recruits have become donors, offering the gift of life to patients in need of life-saving transplants. For more information, visit www.BICTEXAS.org.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.