Saving a Life, and Saying Hello, Donor Meets the Man She Saved

LONDON — On a leisurely Saturday morning five years ago, George Kannides and his wife Koula stayed in bed and made love, with no idea of the agony that lay just ahead.

After their marital romp, George stood up. He suddenly felt so sick and weak that it took him 10 minutes to walk to the kitchen.

"I started shivering and having a hard time breathing and it was as though the whole world was collapsing in on me," he recalled.

It was July 5, 2003. An ambulance rushed him from their London home to the hospital. A blood test revealed that he had leukemia.

Doctors told him he had only two or three months to live. A counselor advised him to prepare his wife for the worst.

George Kannides, 50, has told his story dozens of times.

He recounted it for the first time in person Thursday to the woman he credits with saving his life — Lea Rosenberg, a part-time resident of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

After he was diagnosed, George, a father of three, was determined not to die. Rosenberg, a woman he did not know and who lived thousands of miles away, donated her stem cells in hopes that they could help a cancer patient somewhere.

Until this week Lea and George had talked on the phone and exchanged e-mail messages but had never met.

The pair and their families spent their first emotional day together in London on Thursday, sitting around the Kannides' dining room table where they tearfully recalled their stories.

"Tests showed I had 137 million white blood cells when the normal person only has 7 million to 11 million," said George, a Cyprus native and professional chauffeur in London. "My wife was so upset she wasn't able to speak but I knew that somehow everything would be alright and that I wouldn't die.

"And it's all thanks to this woman that I didn't," he said before leaning over to give Lea a warm kiss on the cheek.

Lea, who lives in West Caldwell, N.J., left her name in a registry of donors more than 20 years ago after she read about a young man in a neighboring New Jersey town in need of a bone-marrow transplant.

She wasn't a match for that man but was hopeful that one day someone else would be able to use her help.

In 2004, she got a call asking if she was still interested in being a donor. With no hesitation, she said yes.

Lea donated the stem cells that wound up saving the life of Kannides, who by then had gone to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan for leukemia treatment.

In the procedure, a leukemia patient's bone marrow stem cells are replaced with those from a healthy, matching donor. If the transplant is successful, the stem cells migrate and begin producing new healthy leukocytes, or white blood cells, to replace abnormal cells.

"When I got that phone call I knew I had to be a donor not only for me but for my first husband," she said.

Lea's first husband, Jesse, died of pancreatic cancer in 1995.

A few years later she met and married her husband Jerry, who has suffered from colon cancer but was determined by doctors to be free of cancer on Monday.

"We have a lot to celebrate," Jerry said.

Late Wednesday night, Lea, 63, and Jerry, 74, arrived at London's Heathrow airport, where an exuberant George and Koula greeted them.

"The walk from that plane to that exit seemed like the longest walk I'd ever taken," Lea said. "I knew who he was right away and immediately my heart was filled with happiness."

The two couples shared a midnight feast of Greek soup, salad, and chicken prepared by Koula.

"When I finally went to bed I couldn't fall asleep because my face hurt from smiling so much," Lea said.

Now they're all awaiting Friday's arrival of Lea's daughter Denise Mosher from Boston along with her husband and children.

A huge Greek barbecue is planned Sunday, where the Rosenbergs will meet Kannides' extended family members and friends.

Then on Tuesday the Rosenbergs will head off on a 16-day Mediterranean cruise.

"I can't describe all I'm feeling," George said. "This person has given me my life. I pray for Lea every single day. I'll never be able to repay her. I know that I have a part of Lea even though I'm still George."

At this, Jerry yelled out from the next room "so I guess you are not Greek anymore but Jewish."

There was much laughter and many tears on Thursday — and lots of Kleenexes on the dining room table.

"I've always been the type of person who has a lot of faith and I've always known there is someone up there who is looking out for me," said George, who describes himself as a religious man.

George has promised to take the Rosenbergs to his Greek Cypriot homeland — but only after they take him to New Jersey and Florida.

The two families say they've formed a bond that will last a lifetime.

"These kind people have taken us into their home and we've become part of each other's family," Jerry said.

Lea's only hope now is that more people will sign up to be donors.

"To be able to save another's life is a miracle of miracles," she said. "Being with George and his family has meant the world to me."