Over the next five years, McFate made hundreds of hospital visits for chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Eventually she was told by her Quad-City doctor that her only chance of survival was a bone marrow transplant. The following day, in February 2006, McFate left the Quad-Cities for the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
"It was overwhelming because there was no match originally and I had a 50-50 chance of surviving the transplant even if there was a match," McFate told the Quad-City Times (http://bit.ly/1c8Ct5J).
Two months after her arrival in Omaha, McFate's luck returned when 19-year-old Michael Henkel from Dorsten, Germany, signed on the international bone marrow transplant registry.
"By the grace of God, he was the perfect 10-out-of-10 match," said McFate, who had her transplant on June 22, 2006.
Following the procedure, McFate had to wait a minimum of two years before contacting Henkel and his family.
"They don't want the donor and recipient to establish a relationship while the recipient has a high risk of death because that may cause guilt to the donor," said McFate, who works at the Detroit Arsenal for TACOM in Warren, Michigan, but lives with her 18-year-old son in Bettendorf on the weekends.
In September 2008, McFate received Henkel's contact information and the two have corresponded sporadically via email and Facebook.
On Sunday, McFate said she received the "most wonderful gift" of the season by winning a national online contest to bring Henkel to Bettendorf from Germany. The contest was sponsored by Angel MedFlight, an international air ambulance service, and McFate's story received 8,238 votes from people across the globe, 58.2 percent of all votes cast for the five finalists. http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/24e878285f2d46238f2a9465632cdc1d/IA--Transplant-Success
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