March 10, 2015
Vanderbilt cross country and track coach Steve Keith doesn’t pretend to be a lobbyist.
But after spending a day on Capitol Hill last week he could warm up to the idea, especially when he’s selling the National Marrow Donor Program, also known as Be The Match.
After all, the transplant program saved his life.
“I was basically Exhibit A,” Keith said. “I would take that and then flip it over and say as well as it has gone for me I’m only one of a part of 40 percent who actually get transplants. There is 60 percent who need transplants who don’t get them. That’s why we need to increase numbers and support for the registry and research.”
Keith is just two years removed from his diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a cancer that prevents the bone marrow from producing enough healthy blood cells. The disease nearly took his life, but he was fortunate the following fall, in September of 2013, to receive a bone marrow transplant that offered him his “second birthday.” His donor came internationally from a 25-year-old male in Germany.
By November of that same year, his blood cell counts were already up. When he wasn’t at the hospital, he came to work for a couple hours and was back full-time by late winter for indoor track season. Just last week, at age 55 and a cancer survivor, he ran a 5K in under 20 minutes.
“Usually a story has a beginning, middle and end,” he said. “Mine has a beginning, middle and beginning.”
That was Keith’s pitch to legislators last Tuesday in Washington, D.C. He was chosen as an advocate for the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match Legislative Day. He was one of several transplant recipients, along with marrow donors and patients searching for a match and doctors, to promote their personal stories and push for support and funding from Congress.
Keith was paired with a staff member from NMDP. Together, they met with legislative assistants in charge of health issues for Tennessee politicians, such as Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Bob Corker, Congressman Jim Cooper and Congressman Chuck Fleischmann.
During a meet-and-greet photo session in the morning,Keith struck up a bond with Alexander as both graduated from Vanderbilt and ran track for the Commodores.
“I get up there and get my picture taken and then it is not a casual hello it’s like, `Hey, cut to the chase, you and I have something in common – we both ran track at Vanderbilt,'” Keith said. “He starts talking track and the lady is trying to shoe me out of there. And (Alexander) is like, `Yeah, they have three really fast guys and then me. But they needed a fourth and so they asked me.'”
Keith hopes his time with Alexander and other legislators goes a long way. Alexander is on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health Education Labor & Pensions and could be influential in helping Be The Match.
For Keith, this is an issue that transcends party lines – a program he is forever thankful for.
“If they had another one of these and had other people to meet, I’d gladly go do it,” Keith said. “It is such a non-partisan issue. It saves somebody’s life.”
