PORTLAND, Maine — Former city councilor and mayor Ed Suslovic still gets goosebumps thinking about the day he got the call. It was Tax Day, 1998, at 5:30 a.m.
“There was this voice on the phone — this little boy’s voice — saying, ‘This is Chris. I have your bone marrow,’” Suslovic said. “And it was Niagara Falls all over the place. I cried so much. I was a mess.”
Suslovic had donated bone marrow stem cells a year earlier and knew they’d helped a boy win his fight against childhood leukemia. But medical rules at the time prevented Suslovic and the boy from connecting with each other for a period of 12 months.
The young man on the line that morning was Chris Costello. He’d called just minutes after getting Suslovic’s phone number.
“I used to pester my bone marrow coordinator every day. I wanted to know the name of the man who saved my life,” Costello said. “Then, that day, she left his name and number in our yard, written on a piece of paper, stuffed inside something like an [engagement] ring box.”
Three days after the phone call, Suslovic, his wife and their two children, drove to Upstate New York to meet Costello and his family. The two struck up an unusual friendship which has lasted 25 years — despite their age difference, geography and occasional, good-natured spats over the Red Sox and Yankees. This fall, Suslovic was co-best man at Costello’s wedding and also served as officiant at the ceremony.
All of it almost didn’t happen.
After graduating from college in the early 1980s, Suslovic signed up for the then-brand new bone marrow stem cell registry on a whim, mostly because of the woman in charge of his regular Red Cross blood donations.
“Truth be told, I had a huge crush on the nurse that used to sit with me,” Suslovic said. “When she asked if I’d be willing to join the bone marrow registry, I would have said yes to anything.”
His crush was temporary, however, and he soon forgot about being on the registry. Years later, in 1998, when Suslovic was a married father of two, working in real estate and living in Portland, he got a call from the registry. He’d been matched to someone who needed the stem cells in his bone marrow.
Suslovic didn’t hesitate, especially after they told him it was a child.
“I thought about my own kids, if they’d needed a bone marrow transplant, what would I say to a potential donor,” he said. “I asked them where they wanted me and when.”
The procedure was done 18 months later.
Costello, who grew up in Webster, New York, just outside of Rochester, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was eight years old. It first showed up as bruises on his legs that wouldn’t go away. Then came a seizure, a blood cancer diagnosis, six months in the hospital and multiple transfusions.
Doctors eventually determined he needed a stem cell transplant, and the search for a compatible donor began.
In the procedure, healthy stem cells are taken from a matching donor’s bone marrow. Those cells are then transplanted into the recipient’s body where they grow and eventually produce healthy blood cells and a new immune system.
According to DKMS, the world’s largest blood stem cell donor center, only 30 percent of those looking for a stem cell donor can find a match in their own family. A full 70 percent must locate a willing stranger through the donor registry.
When Suslovic arrived to meet Costello for the first time in 1999, he was treated to a town-wide celebration. Many residents had helped support Costello’s family during their search for a donor, and Suslovic was treated like a hero.
“The whole town had this big celebration for Chris, which was so cool, and to this day, I’m still friends with their neighbors and the medical team that took care of them,” Suslovic said.
Since then, Suslovic and Costello have spent a few weeks every year together, camping and vacationing with their families. They have similar, upbeat personalities and both love sports — though different baseball teams.
The pair already have plans to camp together at Letchworth Falls State Park, New York’s “Grand Canyon of the East,” next summer on June 2, the 26th anniversary of the transplant.
A quarter century on from the donation, Costello knew he wanted Suslovic to be at his wedding in September, as both co-best man and officiant. Suslovic was happy to oblige, obtaining a one-day certification from the state of New York to officially marry the couple.
“He had everyone laughing,” Costello said. “He’s a great public speaker.”
As a way of paying Suslovic’s kindness forward, Costello’s family now runs the nonprofit Christopher’s Challenge organization. It hosts stem cell donor drives several times a year, trying to get more potential matches signed up on the registry which saved Costello’s life. Since 1998, the Challenge has added thousands of names to the registry and paired dozens of folks with their donor match.
“We want people to know how simple it is to get on the registry — all it requires is swabbing inside your cheeks for 60 seconds,” Costello said. “It could be your son that needs a bone marrow transplant in the future, and the more people we can get in there, the better.”
Through more medical philanthropy, Suslovic discovered he too had leukemia in 2021, while undergoing tests, trying to donate a kidney to a friend. The early detection and prompt treatment sent Suslovic’s cancer into remission without the need for a stem cell transplant, however.
With both men now healthy, they say they’re looking forward to many more years of friendship.
“I gave so little and got so much in return,” Suslovic said. “Chris and his family, me and my family, we’re all one family now.”
To get on the national bone marrow stem cell registry, go to www.dkms.org and request their at-home swab kit.
