After surviving a rare form of bone marrow cancer and treatment, Damon Young got to meet the man who helped save his life.

But Young, who lives in Oak Lawn, wasn’t the only one feeling a sense of deep gratitude at Loyola Medicine’s 33rd Annual Bone Marrow Transplant Celebration of Survivorship.

There were dozens of cancer patients, along with their relatives, friends and staff, who were treated at the Maywood medical center.

Some had been in remission for years.

“You have given me a new outlook on life,” Young told his donor, Syeed Mahdi, of Maryland, after they met for the first time at the event and exchanged hugs. “I’m more than thankful being able to see you here now.

“I don’t know if there’s any amount of thanks that I could give that’s equivalent to what you did,” said Young.

With Young were his mother, Monica Young; father, Damon Sr., his dad’s wife, Jeanine; and friend Daveyon Livingston.

Mahdi’s support was also there, including his mother, Lynn Johnson.

Mahdi, who like Young is 29, said it was a no-brainer to donate stem cells, even though he didn’t know Young. He signed on to be a donor in 2017, when his baseball team went to learn about the need. In 2022, he found out he was a match.

Damon Young and Syeed Mahdi with their mothers, Monica Young, left, and Lynn Johnson. (Janice Neumann/for the Daily Southtown)

“I thought about if I was in a situation where I needed help … I would love for someone to help me because we’re young and we have a long life to live,” Mahdi said in a new release.

That giving spirit has been with him a long time.

“My mom, who raised me, said if there’s ever a chance to give, why not give?” said Mahdi, who works as a software engineer. “It was really nothing on my end.

“My little bit of struggle was worth it to end his long-term struggle,” he said.

Dr. Patrick Hagen, director of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and Young’s doctor, played a major role in Young’s survival.

Hagen said successful treatment has improved immensely in recent years. Without it, he said, Young might have died six months after diagnosis.

The theme of this year’s survivor’s picnic was Let your Dreams be your Wings. (Janice Neumann/for the Daily Southtown)

Because Young didn’t have a bone marrow match among his family members, an outside donor was needed. That can be a challenge for African American patients like Young, because only 8% of the National Marrow Donor Program participants are Black. But a perfect match was found in Mahdi, whose mother is white and father is Black.

Hagen said the drug cyclophosphamide has increased the chances that a transplant will be successful.

“Science allows us to do that with a less-perfect match,” explained Hagen. “Today almost anybody can get a donor,” he said, barring other health issues or lack of available donors.

“A lot of these cancers are 100% fatal without transplant,” he said.

But it can be a long road to healing, with multiple tests, the transplant and recovery.

Many of the medical center’s patients come as far away as south and central Illinois and have trouble affording housing and other necessities when they are being treated, which Hagen said makes the fundraising, included in this event, so important.

The event was meaningful to staff like Hagen, too.

“We really get to know these families,” he said. “I get to spend more time with these patients than my own family.”

Damon Young and Syeed Mahdi at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center after meeting during a picnic celebrating cancer survivors, donors and their families. Mahdi donated bone marrow for Young, of Oak Lawn. (Janice Neumann/for the Daily Southtown)

Cheri Edwards, who had non-Hodgkin lymphoma and whose husband and caregiver, Bob, attended with her, has been cancer free for 10 years. The first year she came to the event after her autologous transplant, where her own healthy stem cells were used instead of a donor’s. She said she was heartened to hear another patient was a 25-year survivor.

“I was like, ‘OK, it could last for a long time,’” she recalled. “I hope it’s gone forever.”

Marion Langevin, one of the nurses who works with cancer patients, said her brother, who had leukemia as a child, wasn’t so lucky.

“When he was diagnosed, there was no hope for him,” she said.  “Now my son plays with a kid who had leukemia, 10 years later.”

Back in 2019, Young started having excruciating leg pain, but when the doctor at the time said he’d need a bone marrow biopsy without anesthesia, he hedged. Then the pain got worse.

“It would bring me to tears,” said Young.

So two biospies were attempted and the third worked. His bones were so dense by then, the resident doctor had to use a tremendous amount of force to get the needle in, recalled Young.

“I definitely cursed him out, but I didn’t mean to,” said Young, adding after he apologized, the doctor said it was OK.

He also needed several months of chemotherapy, but was eventually found to be cancer-free.

Finding out there was a donor was “the biggest relief possible” and he decided he would be OK. He’s had several managerial jobs but is taking some time off now.

“I just kind of said I have to beat this,” said Young.

Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/09/oak-lawn-bone-marrow-donor/