In 2012, Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts had a bone marrow transplant and the stem cells used were donated by her sister, Sally-Ann Roberts. The person you are donating to needs to be a match; however, it's not super often that a patient in need of a transplant will have a full match within their own family, which is why the National Marrow Donor Program encourages people to join the donor registry.
Robin's nephew (Sally-Ann's son), Jeremiah Craft, signed up for the NMDP registry because his mom "'voluntold' [him] to sign up, kind of like a mandatory suggestion," he explained to GMA.
Jeremiah, now 29, donated stem cells in 2024. When he found out that he was a match, he felt that he had to donate — especially because he had had the opportunity in the past, but declined and later regretted it.
He explained to GMA that he "was acting selfishly" at the time and he has "been thinking about that person every day since then."
This time, when he received the call from NMDP, he knew what he had to do. He traveled to Houston to donate and the expenses were covered by NMDP. According to the NMDP website, donors are not responsible for any costs.
"Donors never pay for donating, and are never paid to donate," the website states.
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Robin shared that she's proud of her nephew, and he told GMA that he is "a regular guy trying to do the right thing for the second time."
