Woman donates bone marrow, saves life

October 25, 2012

LINCOLN — Free food for blood was the deal during a blood drive at Lincoln Mall that day, but Maxine Renning wasn’t allowed to donate — she was running a slight temperature.
Renning, then 18, had such a hankering for a slice of pizza she did the next best thing. She offered up a cheek swab, providing a sample of her DNA to a bone marrow registry.
And today a woman in Chicago is alive because of it.
Jenna Langer, 26, has looked forward to meeting her hero in person for over a year now, and next month she’ll get her chance at a conference of the national bone marrow donor foundation Be The Match to be held in Minnesota.
“She gave me the most wonderful gift of all — the shot at a normal, healthy life,” says Langer.
Langer was a high school senior in her hometown of New Ulm, Minn. when she was first diagnosed with bone cancer in 2003, according to the foundation.

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