DERRY — Leigh Buckley sits curled up in an armchair in her living room. It's Monday, May 12, and she is celebrating what she calls her new "birthday" — the date she received her bone marrow transplant one year ago. She and her two daughters, Julia, 3, and Clara, 22 months, have baked chocolate chip cookies with M&M's that read, "Leigh's Birthday" and "New Life."
Buckley's church, Calvary Bible Church in Derry, is hosting a bone marrow drive this weekend in her honor. A drive last year drew 2,500 people, and 1,016 of those were able to join the National Bone Marrow Registry.
"Yesterday was my first day out without a mask and gloves," Buckley, 33, said.
After her transplant last May, Buckley had to first spend 100 days in isolation at her home. She then had to spend the rest of her first year post-transplant away from crowds and could only go out into public protected by the mask and gloves.
Buckley was diagnosed with P-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Jan. 9, 2007, a day she and her husband Andrew still vividly recall.
"It was a surreal feeling," Buckley said. "We cried for hours that day. But that night, I had a blessed restful sleep and when I woke up, I said, 'I'm going to take this one step at a time.'"
The following day, Buckley began chemotherapy treatments at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"I developed pancreatitis and was told my chance for survival was to find a perfect bone donor match," she said.
The Buckleys had moved to Derry from San Jose, Calif., in December 2000 when Andrew took a job with Cisco Systems, then based in Salem. Leigh Buckley found a position as a French teacher at Timberlane Regional High School.
They left behind their families in California and soon began their own family with the birth of Julia.
They also found a new family in their church, Calvary Bible Church in Derry.
On March 3, 2007, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute teamed up with Calvary Bible Church to hold a bone marrow drive in the hopes of finding a potential donor for Buckley. It was held on her 32nd birthday.
Her story reached a national audience when it was featured on the popular YouTube Internet site in a three-minute video showing Buckley interacting with her husband and daughters. The video offered a glimpse into the woman's cancer treatments and chemotherapy while she was in the hospital while spreading word about the need for a donor.
While no national donor matched Buckley, an international registry turned up a bone marrow donor for her.
"It was a young male from Europe," she said.
"The day I found out, I was at Dana-Farber for a weekly appointment and I just jumped up and whooped in happiness right in the waiting room."
Buckley won't be able to make contact with the donor for two years post-transplant, if she chooses. It's a one-year wait for national transplant patients and their donors.
During the past year, Andrew Buckley made another YouTube video of his wife's journey through chemotherapy, radiation, transplant and recovery.
Buckley wrote the lyrics to the song played in the video, sung by a member of her church.
"Lord Jesus, I am safe in your hands," repeats over and over with images of Buckley interacting with her family.
"Either way — if I lived or died — I knew that I'd be safe, I'd be healed," Buckley softly said.
Buckley said it was her church family who saw them through over the long year by providing meals, companionship, care for her daughters and rides to Boston to see her doctors.
"There was a reason we moved to Derry," she said. "It put us close to some of the best care in the country and gave us many new friends we found at church."
While Buckley was afraid a bone marrow match might not be found for her, or found too late, she said something in her clicked and said, "No."
"It was in my corner to make it, and I did," she said.
"I can now relate to people when they are in pain or sick and I do what I can to get people to join the (bone marrow) registry."
Andrew Buckley said at first he kept asking, "Why them?"
"Sometimes we were shaking our fists at God," he said. "But at the same time it gave us a different perspective on life and we found that we needed to chug along and do the best we can. It made us better people."
Andrew Buckley said that he is hoping for just as big a turnout at this year's bone marrow drive.
"People need to know that it's just a cheek swab," he said. "Only if there is a match, is some blood drawn for further testing."
BOX
Want to help?
What: Bone Marrow Drive
When: Saturday, May 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Calvary Bible Church
145 Hampstead Road, Derry
Who: Anyone ages 18- 60 and in good health
Cost: None. In honor of Mother's Day, the National Registry is holding its "Thanks, Mom" campaign between May 5 and 19, providing free screenings in person and online. To register online, go to www.marrow.org and a kit will be sent to your home.
More: You can watch Leigh Buckley's video on YouTube, by typing in her name and Derry, NH. Click on the video titled, "1 Year Post-Transplant."
