In the month of March, 2004

In March 2004, Michael Striegold tested for the Gift of Life, an organisation he had never heard, at a community function in San Francisco. In the same month 12,000 kms across the Pacific, Michael Faust is Sydney learned that he had an aggressive form of leukaemia for which was their no cure. The only hope for survival was finding a matching stem cell donor. Streigold gave Faust the Gift of Life and is in Sydney to attend Faust’s wedding.

 

38-yr-old Striegold, who works in real estate in Houston, Texas, flew to Sydney to be present at 33-yr-old Michael Faust’s wedding to Jackie Antico this week.

J-Wire joined Gift of Life co-ordinator Shula Endrey-Walder and GOL recipient Fred Swaab as Michael Faust and Jackie welcomed Michael Streigold on his first visit to Sydney.

The two have met in America on a regular basis.

Bone marrow and stem cell transplant donors are more than likely to be found within the same ethnic group, but matches are rare. The Gift of Life maintains a world-wide database and this is what saved Michael Faust’s life.

A superbly fit young man who had just qualified from Arizona State University as a tennis coach was stricken with a seemingly fatal disease on his return to Sydney.

J-Wire videoed the interview.

As you watch it, spare a thought for for a four-year old Jewish Australian child, a 40-year-old woman in Israel, a 23-yr-old woman and 60-yr-old man in the USA all facing certain death unless a donor can be found.

The Gift of Life’s Shula Endrey-Walder told J-Wire:  “Michael & Fred would not be alive if Jay Feinberg in the USA would have not inspired the  concept of the Gift of Life.  His transplant took place 15 years ago and he meets up with his stem cell donor Becky every year in NY. Jay was diagnosed with leukaemia 21 years ago and his parents paid for & helped enrol 69 500 potential donors.

On May 5, the Gift of Life will be taking samples from those wishing to join the register at the Yom Ha’azmaut function at the Alison Rd entrance to Randwick Racecourse between 4 and 7.

No matter where you live in Australia or New Zealand, click on www.abmdr.org.au to learn where you can give a sample…..and perhaps ultimately the Gift of Life.

 

This week, under a chupah on the banks of Sydney Harbour, Michael Faust will marry his Jackie watched by the man who gave him the Gift of Life.