I spend a lot of time telling my patients to Be Fearless, Be Full. Whether its getting my anorexic clients to normalize their eating or my diabetic patients to take on the ups-and-downs of insulin issues, I am always pushing them to take on new challenges and face situations that scare them. Some of my patients push back and say, You dont understand my situation because you dont have anything that scares you. Well, this spring I faced something quite scaryI was asked to donate bone marrow for a pediatric cancer patient that I never had never and may never meet.

So, let me start at the beginning. When I was attending New York University (NYU), I was on a tight budget and always headed to the group meetings that offered a complimentary lunch. One day, I noticed that some campus group were working with Be The Match Registry screening for bone marrow donors and, yes, supplying a free lunch. It was just a quick mouth swab (thats all you need to be added to the donor registry--no needles, no blood) and I had my hands on a juicy roast beef sandwich with arugulaNYU always has the best lunches. Little did I know, a decade later, they would come calling, and that roast beef sandwich could cost me some of my marrow. Now thats a bit of a stretch because I was only asked and not forced to donate bone marrow. However, I was informed that my genetic markers were a very close match and the kid needed itso I said, Yes.