WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The Tribe's win over Maine on Saturday was notable for a couple of reasons. Extending their record to 4-0, it marked the team getting off to its best start since 2009. It was also the program's Military Appreciation Game as well as their Be the Match Game, two things near and dear to head coach Mike London.
His father, who was a retired 35-year Air Force noncommissioned officer and Vietnam veteran, passed earlier this year. As for Be the Match, well its a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to helping patients with blood disease get the life-saving bone marrow transplant they need. Coach London has experience with this after granting his daughter a life saving gift in 2003.
Not everyone gets to say they celebrate their birthday twice a year. Then again, not everyone goes through what Ticynn London did.
“So, my actual birthday is in November," she explained. “My bone marrow transplant day was April 29th, 2003, so on April 29th we kind of celebrate it as another birthday.”
That’s the day she was given a second chance at life.
“It’s a celebration of life, not so much as ‘birthday’ birthday.”
Ticynn was born with a rare blood disease called Fanconi anemia, which targets white bloods cells. Treatment required a bone marrow transplant, radiation, and chemotherapy.
“When I was younger, I used to get a lot of nose bleeds. If I got sick, I would stay sick for a lot longer than any of my siblings or classmates,” she said. “It took about three years for me to finally go and get treatment which required a bone marrow transplant, radiation, and chemotherapy.”
Three life altering procedures stood in front of her, but the bone marrow transplant would be the biggest hurdle. The odds of finding a perfect match are slim.
“The bone marrow transplant was probably the hardest thing to go through because it required you to have a donor and that donor has to match six properties of your DNA and that can be extremely hard to do.”
Contrary to all expectations, it didn’t take long to find a perfect match, in fact she didn’t even have to look very far.
“They tested all my siblings and none of them were a match and then they tested my parents,” she recalled. “They happen to call my dad one day and be like, 'you are a perfect match and the odds of that are ten thousand to one.'”
“A perfect match in a parent? Ya know, I’m just speechless when it comes to that, being notified like that,” said Coach London. “When you have a chance to save someone’s life like that, it’s overwhelming. It redefines what your ‘why’ is and knowing that here she is now years later as a head athletic trainer doing her thing.”
Thanks to her dad, Ticynn is now 20 years cancer free.
“The fact that my dad was that one person to be my match, I mean he saved my life, and I wouldn’t be here without him.”
Due to the bone marrow transplant, Ticynn and her father now have identical DNA, in most cases, that is.
“I definitely do not get my dancing skills from my father,” she joked. “That one might have skipped my DNA a little bit.”
But until the two break down some choreography together, its just about time to celebrate another birthday.