September 17, 2008 – A bone marrow transplant saved his life. As president of Dallas-based CSI Entertainment Insurance, he works with the insurance needs of such high-profile notables as Gwen Stefani and Lance Armstrong, one marrow transplant saved his life.
But not so long ago, Mr. Chippendale feared that he would not see his 40th birthday.
In the spring of 2000, doctors diagnosed him with an aggressive form of leukemia; one of the top oncologists in the country gave the longtime Dallasite a 50-50 chance for survival. Over the course of many months, 75 different bone-marrow samples were tested to no avail. He was preparing for an alternative (and generally less successful) treatment when a call came from International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry.
“I sort of took it with a grain of salt, because none of the others had matched,” says Mr. Chippendale. “But this one was perfect.”
The resulting transplant saved his life. While recuperating, Mr. Chippendale, who recently celebrated turning 40 with a trip to Mexico, vowed to give back. After a mandated yearlong waiting period, he located his donor, a 52-year-old repairman who lives south of Berlin in what was formerly East Germany. In the summer of 2002, Mr. Chippendale traveled to Klaus Kaiser’s village to meet him and his family. Mr. Chippendale, who has made several subsequent visits, plans to return in November for the birth of Mr. Kaiser’s grandchild.
“Our lives couldn’t be more different, but Klaus and his family are now a part of my family,” says Mr. Chippendale, who has taken night classes in German and bought his donor a computer with translation software. “I get an e-mail from him or his children almost every day.”
Not only does Mr. Chippendale share his story to increase awareness about marrow donation, but he also co-founded a charity in 2006 with another cancer survivor, Mike Peters, the lead singer of the Welsh rock band The Alarm. Since its inception, the Love Hope Strength Foundation ( www.lovehopestrength.org) has raised and distributed more than $1 million for patient care around the world. The foundation’s October 2007 event, Everest Rocks, was a 14-day extravaganza that included an acoustic concert at the base camp.
In October, Mr. Chippendale will participate in the foundation’s Peru Rocks event at the ancient archaeological site of Machu Picchu. More than 100 cancer survivors, musicians and supporters will join the climb and live concert. Among the organizers’ goals is to set a world record for bone-marrow registrations at a music event. A signed consent form and a simple swab inside the cheek are all that is required.
“We need to dispel the myth that registering or even becoming a marrow donor is painful,” says Katharina Harf, executive vice president of DKMS Americas, an affiliate of the German-based nonprofit that has facilitated more than 13,500 marrow transplants worldwide and has a network of 1.7 million donors. “Seventy-five percent of the time, bone marrow cells are collected via the bloodstream, while 25 percent are collected via the pelvic bone. Both are outpatient procedures.”
Adds Mr. Chippendale: “We want everyone out there to know that donating is not a barbaric procedure. There’s no more drilling into hips, and you don’t have to spend two days in the hospital.
“This is truly the easiest way to save someone’s life through a donation process.”
•According to the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, 6,000 men, women and children search the bone-marrow registry each day for a match.
•Every year, there are more than 10,000 Americans with life-threatening diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma who can only be cured with a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor.
•On average, 33,000 new volunteers join the NMDP Registry each month
•Last year, 30,000 cancer patients in the U.S. needed bone-marrow donors, but just 3,000 found a match
•The marrow collection process has evolved significantly to become a safe and largely pain-free outpatient procedure.
Source: National Marrow Donor Program, www.marrow.org
