Drive-Thru Bone Marrow Donor Event Honors Teacher Who Beat Cancer

EAST HAMPTON, NY— Parents and staff at an East Hampton elementary school teacher are coming together in a show of support for a teacher whose life was saved by a stem cell donation.

The "Swab to Save A Life" drive-thru Be The Match Registry Drive, aimed at helping others, will be held in the John M. Marshall Elementary School parking lot, located at 3 Gingerbread Lane in East Hampton, on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.

The event is held in honor of Joanne Goerler, a beloved teacher for years at John Marshall, who lives in Cutchogue and who beat cancer after a blood stem cell transplant.

"To celebrate Joanne beating cancer, her friends and family are hosting a drive-thru registration event," organizers said. Participants can register for Be the Match while remaining in their cars; all COVID precautions will be adhered to, with an eye toward safety.

People between the ages of 18 and 44 are urged to stop by for a quick cheek swab. "It only takes 10 minutes to register. You could save someone's life!" organizers said.

For those who can't attend, a swab kit can be sent to your home by texting JMMS to 61474 or scanning the code below.

"I'm honored that the drive-thru bone marrow donor event is being held in my name," Goerler said. "This drive is so important to increase the donor registry. Even if only one match is made, it's one life saved."

In November, just a few days before Thanksgiving, Goerler was able to express her forever gratitude to the woman whose stem cell donation saved her life.

The moment was marked by smiles and tears of joy as donor Beatriz Salles Rodrigues, of Framingham, Massachusetts — who made the decision to donate 22 years ago — met Goerler, a North Fork wife and mother to whom she gave the gift of life.

Goerler, a longtime first-grade teacher at John Marshall in East Hampton and whose husband Ron is a winemaker and owner of Jamesport Vineyards, said she discovered she had a problem in February 2018 when she had routine bloodwork that indicated she had low platelets.

From that moment, every step she took and every treatment led her to her Rodrigues, who she met on Saturday for the first time.

"What an amazing journey," she said.

After she learned her platelets were low, over the next few months, Goerler was told the number kept dropping and that she had immature blood cells in her bloodstream. She underwent a bone marrow biopsy and was told she had Myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of blood cancer in which blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature.

Goerler was referred to Dr. Gail Roboz of Weill Cornell Medicine. Roboz is a renowned expert who treated Robin Roberts of "Good Morning America," who also battled Myelodysplastic syndrome.

Describing her emotions at the diagnosis, Goerler said: "We went and I had my first visit. I did exactly what everyone says not to do, the whole Googling thing, to figure out what this was. It sounded bad, but then it sounded treatable, curable, which indeed it is. Then I said, 'We're going to get through this.'"

Still, when she walked into the waiting room for the first time, Goerler said there was a moment when she thought, "This is serious. This is bigger than what I initially thought."

For the next few months, Goerler's platelets kept dropping, so she began chemotherapy for seven days straight every month to prepare for a stem cell transplant.

She was told there is usually a five-year window before a transplant is needed, but Goerler was swabbed and put into the Be the Match bone marrow donor registry.

By September 2018, potential donors were lined up. In mid-2019, "things were happening faster than expected. I wasn't responding as well to the chemotherapy," Goerler said. It became clear a stem cell transplant symbolized Goerler's best hope.

According to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a stem cell transplant is used for treatment when a person's body cannot make the blood cells it needs because bone marrow or stem cells have failed; bone marrow or blood cells have become diseased and healthy stem cells are needed to replace them; or a person has a disease that can only be cured with high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment, which destroys both the cancer and stem cells. Some may need a transplant to replace the stem cells lost during treatment, the site said.

Be The Match explained that when individuals are donating, most give through a peripheral blood stem cell donation. A machine draws blood from one arm, extracts the cells it needs, and returns the remaining blood through the other arm. Others give through a marrow donation, where liquid marrow is withdrawn from the back of a pelvic bone with a needle. Those patients receive anesthesia and feel no pain during the procedure, Be The Match said.

Faced with the uncertainty ahead, Goerler said: "Initially, I was scared, of course. I was worried and nervous. But my personality type is one where I'm going to power through. Where I think, 'I have to do this. This is my job."

She bought inspirational plaques and subscribed to daily motivational quotes by email to stay positive.

She said it wasn't easy to break the news to her elderly parents: "But I told them, 'The good news is, this is curable,'" she said. "'This isn't a death sentence. This one is curable — but the only way it can be done is through the transplant.'"

Goerler and her husband have four children. She said the outpouring of love and support from family and friends meant everything.

"Going through the treatments and the transplant itself, such a big part of it was knowing I had so many people rooting for me, be it family members who stayed with me in the hospital room, or just receiving cards in the mail, or people dropping off food — my school friends, people in the winery industry," Goerler said. "It was my family, it was just everybody, and that was overwhelming and humbling but most appreciated."

After three bone marrow biopsies, it was clear cancer cells weren't diminishing enough, which is necessary for a transplant, Goerler said.

Then came the moment in September 2019 when Goerler got the call that would change her life: A donor who was a 100 percent match was found. Such a perfect match isn't always easy to find, Goerler said, adding that for Caucasians, there is generally a 70 percent chance of finding a 100 percent match outside the family. For other ethnic groups, that number can drop to 30 percent, based on the need to bolster the registry with potential donors.

The match ended up being Rodrigues, who is Brazilian. She signed up with the Icla da Silva Foundation 22 years ago after hearing of a girl who lost her fight with leukemia. The Icla da Silva Foundation is the largest nonprofit that recruits stem cell donors and works closely with Be The Match, Goerler said.

The organization facilitated a meeting in November with Goerler and Rodrigues and filmed the heart-tugging experience that was shown at a virtual fundraising gala in December.

Rodrigues said she decided to sign up for the registry after a friend's 4-year-old daughter got a donor after it was too late to save her.

Describing how she felt when she got the call to be a donor so many years later, Rodrigues said it was deeply emotional. Especially since she had just been thinking about signing up over two decades earlier just a week before, she said.

"I was thinking that my time must have passed and that I would not be able to donate," she said. "A week later, they called me. I think it was a sign."

She was tested in February 2019 but didn't hear back until September. She had injections to boost her red blood cell production. She urged others who might be hesitant to donate to sign up for the registry, explaining the procedure did not hurt and felt like giving blood.

"After you're done, it's so good, so worth it," she said.

She donated her stem cells on Sept. 22, 2019, and Goerler received the transplant Sept. 24. 2020.
Goerler said in the weeks before the procedure, she had intense chemotherapy and radiation.
But when the time came for the transplant, it was much simpler than she ever imagined. "It was this teeny, tiny little pouch with bright pink liquid. It took all of nine minutes to be infused," Goerler said.

Nine minutes that gave her the gift of a lifetime, she said.

Hearing that a match had been found, Goerler said, was "pretty awesome. I was thrilled and excited, and glad this journey was going to start — but also a little apprehensive because I knew it was going to be difficult. Long story short — it was more difficult than I could have imagined."

Goerler struggled with graft versus host disease, when stem cells attack the recipient. The condition caused rashes, neuropathy, swelling and diabetes due to steroid use. She also got pneumonia.

"It felt like every time I was moving forward, something pushed me back," she said.

She was in the hospital for six weeks to ensure she wasn't rejecting the stem cells. About 10 months after her transplant, Goerler said she "started feeling like me again. Now, things are great."

And so the time was right to meet the woman who gave her the promise of tomorrow.

Meeting her donor

Goerler was told her donor was a woman and that she couldn't contact her until a year after the transplant. After she went for her one-year checkup in September, she filled out the paperwork needed to find her donor.

Goerler was in New York City when she received a notification on her phone. "I heard a ding and I picked it up; there was a friend request from some woman. I was like, 'It's 11 o'clock at night!'

The next morning, I realized (Rodrigues) had messaged me and said, 'I'm your donor.' I was crying. I handed my husband the phone and he was crying tears of happiness."

Next, the two women met on Zoom. Rodrigues, originally from Brazil, moved to Massachusetts in 1998, where she and her husband own a painting company. Both women were excited to meet, looking up directions on how best to make the drive.

"We were texting almost daily," Goerler said.

Rodrigues then messaged Goerler to tell her about The Icla da Silva Foundation reaching out regarding the fundraising gala.

And so, they made plans to have Rodrigues and a film crew head to the North Fork.

When they first saw one another, after Rodrigues pulled up in a truck following a trip over on the Cross Sound Ferry, the moment was infused with pure joy.

"We were both masked up but I could see her eyes. She was crying, and that started me crying," Goerler said. "We just embraced and held onto each other. She said, 'I'm so glad you're healthy.' And I told her, 'I'm just so thankful for you.' It was pretty awesome. I don't know what words could describe it. It was just an amazing feeling."

When the two women spoke, Goerler said Rodrigues told her that she has no children but that a member of a donors' group she belongs to described the experience as akin to giving birth. "'I'm not a mom but I know I gave you life,'" she told me. "She's so spiritual. She's God-fearing. There's this inner peace about her."

Goerler and Rodrigues, both in their 50s, felt as though their lives were entwined since the moment Rodrigues decided to sign up to be a donor 22 years ago. "She told me, 'I think I came to the United States to save you,'" Goerler said.

Rodrigues said it was amazing she could still donate after 22 years.

Goerler's family, including her parents, children, siblings, and in-laws, were there to meet the woman who had saved her life.

"She told us she felt so welcomed," Goerler said. "My parents told her, 'You're part of our family now.' My dad was so emotional. Even my big, burly brother was crying."

Ron Goerler posted photos and videos on Facebook of his wife and Rodrigues. "When two people meet for the first time after one person made a decision 22 years ago to be donor and allow my wife to have a second chance and a new beginning," he said. "Thank you, Beatriz Salles Rodrigues."

The two made plans to meet again. "My parents told her that she'll have to come back for Christmas Eve one day; she's part of the family now," Goerler said.

Of Rodrigues, Goerler said: "She's a beautiful, generous soul who gave willingly in the hopes of saving someone's life and that life is mine. She just did such a tremendous, amazing thing I can't even begin to thank her enough for the gift."

Being on the registry and signing up as a potential donor has impacts far beyond the patient who receives the life-saving gift, Goerler said. "Being a donor isn't just about saving that person. It's about saving a family. A legacy. It's such a bigger picture."

She said she is forever thankful for the donation that gave her a lifetime yet to live. On the East End, she said, the Island Gift of Life Foundation on Shelter Island hosts donor registry drives.

Having overcome the long months of treatment and a transplant, Goerler said her entire perspective has changed. She doesn't worry anymore about that annoying person in the supermarket or someone who cuts her off on the road. None of that matters now, she said.

"It's about turning to look at and appreciate the little things, a beautiful sunset, about putting all the negativity aside. I didn't have time for that anymore. My time was focused on the journey, the fight — that was what I was choosing to put my energy into. Everything else fell by the wayside."

Meeting her donor, Goerler said, "was a real joy for all of us."

Rodrigues felt the same way.

"It was like something I'd never felt before. It was very emotional, and so good, knowing I'd given someone else the chance to live," she said.

When the two saw one another, there were big hugs and both were crying, Rodrigues said. "Her family was so amazing. They made me feel like I'm a part of the family forever now."