Precious Cargo

Marsha Williams 鈥�81 crisscrosses the globe transporting hope in the form of bone marrow and stem cells.

By Melissa Babcock Johnson

veryone was anxious for the plane to land. But Marsha Williams 鈥�81 needed it to. Someone鈥檚 life could depend on it.

The plane had been circling鈥攁long with more than 20 others鈥攐ver its destination airport for more than an hour to allow severe thunderstorms to pass. But once the runways reopened, Williams鈥� pilot announced that the line to land was now too long for the amount of fuel left on the plane; it would be diverting to another airport. Williams would miss her connecting flight.

She could not miss that connecting flight.

Acting quickly, Williams handed a flight attendant the ace up her sleeve鈥攁 letter that read: 鈥淢arsha Williams is a trained courier carrying human cells for transplantation. It is imperative that the blood stem cells be transplanted without delay.鈥�

Within minutes, the pilot made a new announcement: The flight would not be rerouted after all; the plane would be landing shortly.

Every year, thousands of people are diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. For some patients, the best treatment is a blood stem cell transplant from a healthy donor whose DNA proteins and markers match theirs. NMDP (formerly Be The Match/National Marrow Donor Program) manages the world鈥檚 most diverse registry to help patients find their match.

The field has come a long way since the organization facilitated its first bone marrow transplant in 1987. Before then, most donors and patients were related. However, 70% of patients don鈥檛 have a fully matched donor in their family. Through NMDP鈥檚 blood stem cell donor registry, unrelated donors and patients can be matched across state lines and even international borders.

To ensure those potentially life-saving and delicate blood stem cells securely reach their intended recipient in time, they are hand-carried鈥攕ometimes thousands of miles鈥攂y volunteer medical couriers like Williams.

CORPORATE TO COURIER

Back in 2007, Williams, who double majored in psychology and English at 糖心TV, was loving her corporate job as senior vice president of brand and consumer insights at Nickelodeon in New York City. But the long hours of intense market research and growing number of consumer insights presentations to ad sales and licensing partners were beginning to burn her out. She took a week off to join a Habitat for Humanity build in the Dominican Republic, fulfilling a long-held desire to help others. She loved it, she says. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥楾his is how I can volunteer.鈥欌€�

But the little free time Williams had from her demanding career was precious, and it didn鈥檛 necessarily lend itself to volunteering. 鈥淓venings and weekends were all about recovery, restoration and recharging,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚 did that build, and I thought I could do it one week a year鈥攖ake a vacation and volunteer. But then I totally burned out and decided I needed to step away from corporate altogether.鈥�

She moved home to Cincinnati and started her own market research business, Harvest Research Group LLC. She kept Nickelodeon as a client and added Lego, Discovery Networks, DreamWorks Animation TV, the Oprah Winfrey Network and more. But she was still looking for ways to give back.

She learned about medical courier opportunities by chance while on a hike more than a decade ago. Having been away from Cincinnati for more than 25 years, Williams had sought ways to reconnect with her hometown and joined a hiking MeetUp group. She noticed another member wearing a hat with the Be The Match logo. Williams approached him and mentioned she was in the donor registry.

鈥淚t turned out he was a courier for NMDP鈥攖he first courier in the Cincinnati area,鈥� Williams recalled. 鈥淚 said, 鈥榃hat does a courier do? What does that mean?鈥� And so, over the course of this hike, he explained volunteer couriers transport bone marrow or stem cells from wherever the donor is to wherever the patient is. I was like, 鈥極h, this sounds like something I would love to do.鈥欌€�

I love that science keeps advancing and allowing for more success with cell therapy.

Marsha Williams 鈥�81

The combination of travel and a flexible volunteer opportunity sounded perfect to Williams. Her fellow hiker connected her with NMDP, which began its extensive vetting process. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the kind of volunteer job where you say, 鈥業鈥檇 like to volunteer,鈥� and they say, 鈥楥ome on in and start,鈥欌€� Williams says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like job hunting. You apply, interview and provide references. Then if you get approved, you have to pay for training out of pocket as a show of good faith and responsibility.鈥�

She began training in January of 2014, then passed the exam. 鈥淚f you pass the test, congratulations, you鈥檙e a courier,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey send you a medical cooler, and they teach you how to prep and sterilize it. If you get assigned a trip, you鈥檝e got the cooler ready, they send you the paperwork you need and off
you go.鈥�

Couriers mostly carry bone marrow or stem cells collected through a process called apheresis, and sometimes plasma or T-cells. The harvested biological material must be kept within a specific temperature range in the specially manufactured, thermally protected medical transporter. The cooler can hold the proper temperature range for up to 96 hours. Couriers typically pick up cells from a hospital or clinic at the donor鈥檚 location and deliver them to one at the patient鈥檚 location, Williams explains. The door-to-door journey cannot exceed 48 hours, or the biological matter will begin to break down.

鈥淵ou start off with domestic trips. If you鈥檙e interested in international, you have to do domestic for two years without any mistakes,鈥� Williams explains. 鈥淣ow I go all over the globe, and it is so cool.鈥�

Williams has traveled to countries she might never have otherwise visited, she says, including Norway, Poland, Austria, Chile and Israel, which Williams says popped up a lot when she first began as a courier. The second largest Jewish population in the world after Israel is in the United States, so Jewish Americans are often matched with someone in Israel.

Couriers picking up must be in the donor鈥檚 country at least 48 hours before the cells are extracted so the cooler can be fully prepped and reach the correct temperature. Usually, couriers picking up get the two days before collecting the donation to prep the cooler and themselves for the pick-up, as well as to sightsee or otherwise experience the locale, and couriers dropping off overseas get two days afterward.

A RACE AGAINST TIME

Williams recently retired, giving her even more time to help save lives. Strict patient confidentiality rules mean she keeps dates and other identifying specifics of her trips under wraps. Most go off without a hitch, but what she can share about the ones that don鈥檛 is riveting.

Several years ago, when Williams was trying to fly back to the U.S. from Europe with stem cells, a bomb cyclone hit. East Coast airports were closed, but the airport where Williams was scheduled to land at 11:30 p.m. was set to reopen at 9:30 p.m., so her flight took off as planned.

Before the plane had even left the runway, its entertainment system crashed, meaning none of the monitors could display flight tracking details. 鈥淚t seemed as if everyone went to sleep except me,鈥� Williams says. 鈥淚 watched Netflix from my iPad, determined to stay awake and reset back to Eastern time.鈥�

Because the flight tracker was down, no one realized the pilot flew as far as Greenland before turning around and heading back to Europe鈥攖he U.S. destination airport never reopened, and international airports south of the storm were filled with other planes that had flown back believing they鈥檇 be able to land, too. So about eight hours after takeoff, Williams was right back where she started: on a different continent from the patient who needed the donor material she was carrying.

鈥淚 was now on the clock in a big way, having lost a whole day,鈥� Williams says. 鈥淚t was also daybreak the next morning in Europe, and I had not slept a wink. I discovered another courier on that flight in the exact same position.鈥�

Just like before, Williams had to inform the airline she was carrying precious cargo in order to be rebooked with priority on a flight that would avoid the East Coast all together.

鈥淯ltimately, I made it to my destination hospital with about three hours left on that 48-hour clock,鈥� she says.

The occasional heart-pounding rush is well worth it for Williams, who is proud to play an integral role in getting patients the care they need.

鈥淚 love the fact that the success rate keeps improving,鈥� she says. 鈥淪ince I became a courier, the research has [shown] that stem cell transplants can also help put some autoimmune diseases into remission. I love that science keeps advancing and allowing for more success with cell therapy.鈥�

Marsha Williams ’81 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, her home base of operations for courier missions. Photos on location by Sean D. Elliot.