By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Chris Pablo and his family yesterday thanked Roger Ariola,
the man who helped save his life. Ariola, wearing a hat, called
his donation of bone marrow "one of the most
gratifying experiences of my life."

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Donor: ‘The message
is from God’

The man who gave
lifesaving bone marrow
meets the man it saved

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

CHRIS Pablo will be at a bowling alley tomorrow celebrating his son Zachary's sixth birthday because of a "messenger" on Kauai.

"The message is from God," Roger Ariola, 51, said yesterday upon learning he had donated Pablo's lifesaving bone marrow. "I'm just the vessel."

Pablo, 47, received a bone marrow transplant a year ago at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Southern California. He was told during a recent checkup that he was free of leukemia.

He met Ariola for the first time yesterday at a luncheon hosted by the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry at the Ala Moana Hotel.

"I don't even know how to describe the whole thing," said Pablo, Kaiser Permanente public, government and community affairs manager. "I've been waiting for this day. It's an opportunity to say thank you. I'm glad to be alive to say it."

Pablo's son Nathan, 8, snapped pictures of his father and the man who saved his life.

Ariola described his gift of bone marrow as "the right thing to do."

"It was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life. To find the recipient surviving is even more gratifying," he said.

Rose Lee, donor program coordinator, said Ariola called the registry in May 1996 for information and registered in August of that year as a potential donor.

The registry doesn't tell donors or recipients about each other for a year, and then only with their agreement, Lee said. However, they can communicate anonymously.

Although he wasn't told anything, Ariola said he suspected the identify of his recipient because a few days after he was called for a workup, it was reported that a donor was found for Pablo.

Pablo said he was lying in his bed at the City of Hope hospital a year ago when a nurse gave him an envelope. Written on a card inside were the words: "Be well, my friend."

Said Pablo: "That was the end of my breakfast and the beginning of my healing, Roger." A person facing death needs hope, he said. "Roger, you gave me that hope. ... Every volunteer gives hope."

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Chris Pablo, right, hugs Roger Ariola, the man
who helped save his life.

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Pablo's wife, Sandy, said his recovery "has been really miraculous."

They were at the City of Hope last year on Zachary's birthday, she said. "Chris was given a pass for a couple of hours to leave the hospital. It was his first time to walk out of the hospital."

They didn't know if he would ever be able to do that, but Ariola "gave us our lives back," she said.

She gave him a stained glass disk with the words: "A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle."

"That's what Roger did for us," she said.

Pablo gave Ariola a T-shirt with the words, "Share Life" and the phone number, 1-800-Marrow-2. He said he waited a year "for this moment."

A shy, self-employed man with an engineering and business background, Ariola reluctantly accepted the attention heaped on him. "I don't like all this," he admitted. "I want to be rooted in reality."

However, he said he will do whatever it takes to promote the bone marrow registry.

Pablo is particularly grateful to Ariola because there are few Filipinos among the 53,000 potential donors on the Hawaii registry. "It's time we step to the plate to help each other in our own ethnic group -- other Asians as well," Pablo said.

More people also will live because of the 30,000 people who responded to 3-year-old Alana Dung's need for a bone marrow transplant, Pablo said.

He participated in rallies to seek donors for Alana and has continued to urge people to sign up with the registry to help others.

The child died Oct. 14, but Pablo said she "didn't die in vain. I have a cause, a spirit in me, to help the registry."

The registry created an Annual Alana Dung Memorial Award to perpetuate her memory and recognize her contribution.

Dr. Young K. Paik, director of the registry at St. Francis Medical Center, presented the first award to Data House.

The company processed the thousands of potential donors for Alana Dung into files for the national donor program.

Of the total number on the Hawaii registry, Paik said 57 have been donors for recipients here and elsewhere.