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What were the odds that the match for LeCours, now 57, would be found in the same city?

“Astronomical,” she said.

The chances that White would even ever be asked to donate were also very low — only about one in a thousand. After he agreed to donate, he was not told where the recipient might be. “I was told the recipient could be anywhere. They could be in Africa,” said White, now 22 and a recent graduate in computer science.

White had signed up for the registry through a cheek swab booth at ComiCon less than six months earlier. A smart place to recruit would-be stem cell donors, he notes. The optimal donor is a male between the age of 17 and 35 — and that’s the ComiCon demographic.

He decided to register as a potential donor because he grew up in the scouting movement. “One of the main philosophies is to do a good turn every day,” he said.

The donation was a non-surgical procedure in which White’s blood was removed though a needle, the stem cells were separated from his blood and the remaining blood components returned to his body through another needle. The procedure started at about 8 a.m. and was over by about 5 p.m.

“I figured if I gave someone a day for a thousand more days (of life) then I felt it was a fair trade. I have many years of life. Why not spend one day?” said White.

LeCours’s medical journey started in 2009 with an emergency room visit for abdominal pain. She was eventually diagnosed with Stage 4 follicular lymphoma, a blood cancer that affects infection-fighting white blood cells. At the time, LeCours was working for Gov.-Gen. MichaëlleJean and was able to stay on the job most of the time during her six months of treatment.