“I am not a hero”
“Congratulations, you are the best match!” When Robin Arrowsmith received the phone call from the John Hopkins Case Management Nurse that she was the most viable candidate for a stem cell donation for her cousin John in February of 2021, Robin set it in stone that there was no way she would ever back out.
John, who is married and has a teenage son, was diagnosed with leukemia, a blood cancer, in November of 2020. His wife, Lori, immediately rallied his family members to register on “Be The Match” and receive a free cheek swab kit to see if there were any potential matches.
Robin and her other cousins immediately registered to receive the test kits, submitted in the swab tests in December, however, later found out the average registration and results could take up to six months. Robin was not willing to wait half a year to find out whether she was a match or not.
She asked her cousin’s wife Lori if there was anything else that could be done to speed things up. John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where John was being treated, was contacted in January, and Robin completed all the blood work needed. Come February, Robin received the phone call indicating she was the perfect match and John’s best chance for stem cell treatment!
When the doctors and nurses informed her of the side effects and the possibility of cell rejection, Robin did not bat an eyelash and had no worries. She calls herself “Positive Polly” and believes that positive thinking will create positive results. She told the doctors:
“I have so much positivity flowing through my veins right now, there will be absolutely no chance for rejections. Now tell me where to sign and let’s get my stem cells going for my cousin!”
She signed lots of paperwork and did a full day of physical exams at the clinic, including getting a total of 21 tubes of blood drawn. Finally, the date was set: On April 15th, 2021, she would undergo the extraction procedure for the stem cells. Four days before the 15th, she started to give herself the injections in the mornings and could feel her bone marrow releasing stem cells into her blood at full gear. She and her husband Ian nicknamed the stem cell production as getting "Hulktified":
“I felt like I was having labor pains with the Incredible Hulk. I could feel the injections working…and it felt great!”
During the treatment, she was grateful to be able to work remotely. She is part of the Drayage Operations team at the Hellmann branch in Houston, Texas, and had the full support of her manager.
Then, donation day was finally there. For four hours her blood was pumped out of one arm into a machine that separates the stem cells from the blood. Afterward, the filtered blood was transferred back into the other arm. Plasma was also taken from Robin to help create the perfect “cocktail mix” (the term the stem cell nurse came up with) for John's treatment. With each passing hour, she felt the “labor pains of the Incredible Hulk” decreasing.
In April 2022, Robin and John celebrated his first Rebirth Day:
1 year of being cancer-free!
On the phone, they toasted each other with a root beer float, which has become a tradition, since John made it for her the night before the stem cell donation. Family, friends, hospital staff, and colleagues call her a hero.
But she doesn’t feel like one.
"The entire thing took a total of three days of my life…that’s it. The real heroes are my cousin John and his wife!”
Throughout the treatment and months of chemotherapy, John never gave up. His wife Lori stood by his side, taking care of their son Adam, running the household, driving back and forth to the hospital with no complaints.
Looking back on the past year, Robin wouldn’t have done anything differently. Her cousin and her have been closer than ever, checking in on each other all the time. If necessary, she would do a stem cell donation again in a heartbeat, even for a non-family member. She is still on the Be the Match registry and wants to encourage others to do the same.
Her positive attitude translates into her daily work. Within the Hellmann F.A.M.I.L.Y, her story has spread wide, and she has been nicknamed by her coworkers “Chief Motivational Officer”. She encourages everyone to reach out for help and approach problems in different ways.
“In the end, we are all humans. No one has to tackle everything all alone. After all, that's what the team is for.”
