4,434 miles, 3,500 donors, 15 months, 14 pairs of shoes, five donor matches and three cell phone batteries later… Jeana Moore finally made it to New York City! Jeana Moore, a 57 year-old grandmother from Deer Park, WA, walked from Seattle to New York City to spread the word about the importance of bone marrow donation. She documented her journey at Steps to Marrow.
Jeana was inspired to make the trek by her three-year-old granddaughter Jada who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia at birth. Jada endured five rounds of chemotherapy, the first of which began when she was only six weeks old. The chemotherapy bought Jada time, but unfortunately was not enough to cure her. She needed a bone marrow transplant.
No one in Jada’s family was a match and no matches in the U.S. were found in the National Bone Marrow Registry. They expanded the search for a match internationally and when Jada was about 6 months old they found a match in Germany!
Jeana decided she would begin her journey in Seattle on October 19, 2009. Weber Shandwick Seattle client Verizon Wireless provided Jeana with a BlackBerry and service to use throughout her trip which proved to be her lifeline. She used the phone to coordinate bone marrow drives across the county, spread the word by doing media interviews and to keep in touch with her family. Her goal is to enlist 20,000 bone marrow donors, so far she is well on her way and has recruited 3,545 to date, five of which have been confirmed matches.
Jeana crossed the finish line and arrived in New York City on January 27, 2011. A ceremony was held to celebrate Jeana’s amazing accomplish where Jeana, Jada and the matching donor from Germany, Torsten Huber, met for the first time!
Jada is in remission and living happily with her parents in Eastern Washington.
Check out two of the radio interviews Jeana has done below!
Photo courtesy of New York Daily News.
As an Account Executive within Weber Shandwick’s Consumer Innovation team, Erica works on generating story ideas and topic angles for clients in addition to providing them with public relations counsel. After work, you’re most likely to find her cheering on the USC Trojans! Fight On! 
