In March 2022, Nick De Graw, a 20-year-old sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, noticed some unusual symptoms that led him to believe he might have contracted mononucleosis. For weeks, he experienced persistent night sweats and an overwhelming sense of malaise. When these symptoms didn’t improve, he decided to visit a local emergency room.
After undergoing a bone marrow biopsy, the results came as a complete shock: De Graw had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood cancer. At the time, he could hardly process the news. “I definitely felt shock hearing that I had cancer,” De Graw recalls. “There was a fear of the unknown.”
Fast forward three years, and De Graw’s life has taken a remarkable turn. Now, at 23, he is cancer-free and set to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. His successful battle against leukemia was guided by the expert care of Dr. Monzr Al Malki, the director of City of Hope®’s Unrelated Donor BMT Program and Haploidentical Transplant Program. De Graw underwent months of rigorous treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and, eventually, a life-saving blood stem cell transplant. The transplant, performed on September 22, 2022, involved stem cells from an unrelated donor based in Germany, which successfully placed his cancer in remission.
“It’s incredible that a person who has never met me would do so much for me,” De Graw says, expressing his deep gratitude. “I don’t know that much about him, and I don’t think he knows that much about me, but I am very grateful for what he did.”
This year, De Graw will finally meet the young man who saved his life—Alexander Hoppe, a 28-year-old from Rheine, Germany. Hoppe is the donor whose blood stem cells made De Graw’s recovery possible. Through DKMS, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to matching blood cancer patients with life-saving donors, Hoppe registered as a donor without ever expecting to be called. Now, he will travel to the United States for the first time to meet De Graw during City of Hope’s 49th annual Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Reunion.
The BMT Reunion is a cherished tradition at City of Hope, where patients who have received bone marrow or stem cell transplants meet their donors face-to-face for the first time to express their gratitude. This year’s reunion will be particularly poignant, as De Graw and Hoppe are joined by Pete Ernaut, a 60-year-old leukemia survivor from Reno, Nevada, and his donor, Juan Antonio Rios, a 33-year-old from Frutillar, Chile. Together, these patients and their life-saving donors will gather to celebrate the powerful connections forged through the gift of life.
The significance of this event cannot be overstated. Dr. Stephen J. Forman, a renowned hematologist and director of City of Hope’s Hematologic Malignancies Research Institute, emphasizes the profound impact that blood stem cell donors have on the lives of patients. “City of Hope extends its deepest gratitude to the countless selfless individuals who donate their bone marrow or stem cells each year to save lives,” Dr. Forman says. “Whether donors are a family member or an unrelated person, we are profoundly thankful for their generosity and the second chance at life they provide.”
This year’s reunion also marks another major milestone for City of Hope: the institution has recently performed its 20,000th transplant, a significant achievement in the field of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation. Having pioneered several innovations in BMT, City of Hope has long been at the forefront of this life-saving field. Notably, the institution was one of the first to successfully perform BMTs in older adults and is recognized globally for curing a patient with both HIV and leukemia through the use of a transplant. City of Hope has also made significant strides in expanding access to blood stem cell transplants, working with both unrelated matched donors and, more recently, half-matched family donors.
One of the innovative treatments currently being offered at City of Hope is Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, which has been successfully used to treat more than 1,700 patients. This cutting-edge immunotherapy is being explored not only as a treatment for blood cancers but also as a tool to improve outcomes following a transplant.
City of Hope has also expanded its cancer care services to new locations across the country, including cancer centers in Orange County, Atlanta, Chicago, and Phoenix. This expansion aims to bridge gaps in access to optimal care for patients battling leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and related hematologic diseases.
For Pete Ernaut, his diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in December 2018 was equally shocking. What began as severe chest, back, and hip pains on Christmas Day led to the discovery of a life-threatening illness. “I never had any symptoms prior to that,” Ernaut recalls. “I couldn’t believe what was happening to me.”
As a longtime lobbyist in Nevada, Ernaut turned to his colleagues for advice on the best place to seek treatment. The answer was clear: he should become a patient of Dr. Forman at City of Hope. But first, Ernaut had to break the news to his four children—ages 20, 18, 16, and 14—about his diagnosis. It was, as he describes, one of the hardest conversations of his life. “I had to say: ‘Hey, Dad has something really bad and I gotta go away,'” he says. “But I had no idea if I was coming back.”
After undergoing chemotherapy and finding that his cancer was temporarily in remission, Ernaut discovered that he needed a bone marrow transplant to achieve permanent remission. A match was found initially, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the first donor was unable to proceed. Then, through DKMS, a perfect donor was located in Frutillar, Chile: Juan Antonio Rios. The transplant took place on June 13, 2019, and just 18 days later, Ernaut was able to leave the hospital and begin his recovery at a rented home in Monrovia, California.
Ernaut credits City of Hope’s extensive support services, including counseling, physical therapy, and spiritual care, for helping him maintain a positive outlook during his treatment. “I used every service I could possibly use to stay one step ahead and to stay positive,” he says.
Once the mandated two-year waiting period had passed, Ernaut reached out to his donor, Rios, who had joined the DKMS registry after hearing about a young boy named Martin, who was battling leukemia. At the time, Rios didn’t know who his donation would benefit, but he understood that it could change a life. “It’s incredibly exciting to meet Juan Antonio in person,” Ernaut says. “Not only did he save my life, but he’s like a part of me now.”
For both De Graw and Ernaut, the upcoming BMT Reunion represents more than just a reunion of patients and donors—it’s a celebration of the life-saving impact of bone marrow and stem cell transplants and the selfless generosity of individuals like Hoppe and Rios. Their stories are a testament to the incredible potential of these transplants to save lives and restore hope.
As City of Hope continues to pioneer advances in cancer care, both locally and globally, the legacy of its work is evident in the countless lives saved, the patients who thrive after treatment, and the heartfelt reunions between patients and their heroes: the donors who make it all possible.
