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Seitz makes courageous decision to help save a life

FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz has made 102 saves during a six-year career that has seen him play for three different teams, mostly as a back-up after entering Major League Soccer as one of the best young American goalkeeping prospects in college history. Some of those 102 saves have been astounding, such as the handful of jaw-dropping stops he made at the end of the 2011 season to deny Chris Wondolowski the Golden Boot.

For all of Seitz’s memorable saves, none can measure up to the biggest save of his young life. His decision to be a bone marrow donor.

Seitz, 25, recently became the first pro athlete to donate bone marrow during a season, after discovering he was a match for a sick patient in need. Rather than pass on the opportunity to donate, and risk his season and potentially his playing career, Seitz stepped up and made a heroic sacrifice.

ESPN chronicled Seitz’s journey, the decision to be come a donor and the process that led him to go from one of a host of people to be sampled for potential bone marrow donation, to one of the few to accept the request to become a donor.

Give the story a read. It is an impressive tale of sacrifice and selflessness, and a decision that has helped bring attention to a worthy cause.

What do you think of Seitz’s story? Surprised to see an athlete make that sort of sacrifice? Could you have done the same? Are you planning on getting swabbed in the future?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I could not do the same. Very courageous, very selfless …

    To be young and idealistic,

    I feel bad for the day when the reality of the world smacks it out of him

    Reply
  2. Such a refreshing story.

    Two months ago, I found out a friend from high school was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and the outlook was not great, she is 30 years old and healthy otherwise. I signed up for the Be The Match registry, hoping to miraculously help. Last weekend, before I even received my registration card in the mail, I heard that they found a donor for her. She had the blood transplant, and new blood cells are happily growing inside her. There is still a long road to recovery, but the outlook is much better all thanks to someone like Chris.

    Thanks Chris, I hope that someday it will be my turn to help a family in need the same way you did.

    Reply
  3. Honestly, this sounds a little cornball, but I was needing a bit of “restore-my-faith-in-the-human-species” this morning. This sure did the trick. It really is an excellent story. Thanks for linking to it, Ives et al.– this is why I come to this site. It’s not only the excellent original content, it’s knowing that if there’s anything worth reading out there, I’ll find it here.
    What a story– I think I’m going to look into getting registered as a bone marrow donor.

    Reply
  4. big RESPECT! Thanks much for posting Ives. Selfless thing to do and amazing to do it during the season.

    felix – It aint that bad. Considering you can help save someones life whats a little pain. Hope this inspires the posters to go to http://www.marrow.org and become part of the Be The Match program.

    Reply
  5. RESPECT! Thanks for passing this along Ives. I love that you recommend good stories from other web sites. Don’t think I would have ever found this.

    Reply

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