Story behind Jed's video, the Italian-Thai who took an 8 hour bus ride for Lara

At 3.45 pm on the first Saturday of our campaign, Jed walked into the Red Cross holding his backpack to his chest. He wanted to register as a stem cell donor for Lara. He told me that knew about the #match4lara through social media, that he lived in Chiangmai where it was not possible to register. So he took an 8 hours bus ride early that morning and arrived in the nick of time before the registry closed.

Normally the registry closed at 3.30 pm but on that Saturday we asked the Red Cross to extend it to 4.00 pm because we had 96 registered donors and really wanted to reach a hundred for the first time!

In retrospect I feel that the time was extended just for Jed!

I was so touched with his attitude and outlook on life when we talked, that I waited to video and talk to him after his blood donation. I was so excited that I knocked 2 glasses of ovaltine all over myself. His message to Lara was so incredibly touching. So elated to have this for a FB post, I hurried home to get it posted by the team to find out that I had accidentally deleted my video clip! After a few hours of frantic troubleshooting, my son recovered Jed’s video which became a corner piece of our appeal as it made it onto worldwide news and inspired so many more people to register.

It was a true privilege to meet someone so special.

Jed, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.